Mongrel
by Serpent Prince
Summary: Loki has failed in conquering Midgard and in the aftermath, he is given a punishment. In order to learn some humility he is to become nothing more than a unwelcome guest to those who much rather never see him again. The Avengers.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: First fanficion for me, ever. ^^ Hopefully you guys like it. Leaving reviews may make me more inclined to continue. Future chapters of this will be probably be a bit shorter. **

**Edit: I've revised this chapter a bit since it had been first released to fix the errors with the help of my beta, TruffleHead. ^^**

**_Disclaimer: I do not own The Avengers. _**

"I am a god, you dull creature, and I shall _not_ be bullied!" A young man screamed at a large green hunched over humanoid creature. The bulky figure seemed to stop for a second as if it was listening, but the pause was short, lastly only a few seconds. The green creature didn't seem to be one much at all for patience… nor thinking in general. A large and muscled green hand latched onto the young man's leg. The arm swung rapidly, beating the god on the floor repeatedly, side to side. The man couldn't help but let out a few yelps as his body met the hard floor over and over. The green monstrous creature seemed to get distracted by something outside of the light coloured building because it released the young man with one final strong blow flinging him to the ground.

The man seemed to be frozen in place in the body shaped indent now imbedded in the floor. A few pitiful whimpers hummed from his throat. He was sprawled out on the ground; one of his arms was bent at an odd angle and the slightest bit of blood dribbled from his mouth. The hulk lumbered out, Loki assumed that the feral green beast though he had utterly defeated his foe.

Being as stubborn as he was, Loki attempted to stand up. His breaths were haggard and uneven, he struggled with each one. Moving the slightest brought waves of unyielding pain throughout the god's body. He couldn't help but give a short sob from the pain. He managed to lift himself upward using his unbroken arm, though it was slowly done; Loki was clever enough to know that he could quite easily damage himself more if he rushed.

He managed to drag himself onto one knee before falling to the ground once again in a heap of searing agony. Instead of attempting to get up again, he rested his body on the cold manmade floor and listened. He could still hear the commotion outside; the horrible high pitched squeals of humans, multiple loud, piercing gunshots and the rumble of collapsing buildings. And insane smile slowly stretched stretch across the Asgardian's blood coated face.

A short deranged laugh managed to escape Loki's mouth until it expanded into a loud fit of crazed laughing. Every laugh pained his bruised and possibly broken ribs but he was beyond that at this point. He has lost! An army of ruthless Chitauri being slain by a simple party of seven and even a _god _was humiliated by the brute force of a green, bumbling beast.

Loki's laugh continued until it faded into pained wheezing. He underestimated the Midgardians and their allies. It was a shame really; that time and planning, all wasted. Loki's fit of giggling was interrupted as the limp body of a reptilian creature flew through the already broken window and hit the ground hard, making no movement to get up. It's head just lolled to the side. His wave of insanity faded as he listened to the decreased noise. The sound of new wounds being ripped through buildings or the squeals of death from both human and Chitauri alike had faded. The battle was done. He had lost.

The thought of losing wasn't torturing Loki much at all- it was the cold shiver of fear that ran through his body as he recalled the threats given to him if he had lost. His madness and pleasure from the pure lawlessness was gone, and in it's wake was a desperate struggle to find some sort of way to escape the justice of the Other, the Midgardians and the Asgardians. Actual fear started to bubble up in his chest as he came to realization; there was no escape.

Heavy angry footsteps broke Loki from his thoughts. He gave a glance upward to see seven faces all coated with many negative expressions. Trying to distract the dread rising up in his chest, Loki spoke making sure his voice had none of his true feelings laced within them, "If it's all the same to you, I'll take that drink now." The statement got nothing but multiple glares, void of anything resembling humor. Loki gave a charming smile as he watched the movements of each of the Avengers that stood around him. They all had some sort of weapon ready to use. Loki didn't move an inch from where he laid until a furious demand barreled out from one of the Avengers mouth's.

"Stand up." The one known as Iron Man snarled. He had none of the humor he had once held in his tone and being at their mercy, Loki had to oblige. He was still just as wounded as before from the green brute, however, so such a seemingly simple task as 'standing up' may have been more difficult than the Man of Iron thought.

He used his undamaged arm to push himself upward at a slow but yet ever so painful pace. Loki attempted to keep his face clear from the pain, and being a talented liar, he actually managed to keep most of it out of his expression. But the grunts and quiet whimpers of agony wouldn't be silenced.

Once he was on his feet he was grabbed by his idiotic brute of a brother and his hands were tied together in a matter of seconds. Thor's grip was tight as he held his much slimmer younger brother, and Loki could help but hiss a curse as the brute pressed against his damaged ribs. One of the foolish mortals must have thought Loki's swear was some sort of spell because a gag was forced into his mouth silencing his silver tongue.

* * *

The group of Avengers dragged Loki off to what Loki assumed what was their base of operations automatically. They replaced the shoddy rag preventing Loki from speaking with a much more durable metal one. This one stopped Loki from making even the slightest noise. A small amount of metal covered with some sort of fabric pressed Loki's tongue to the bottom of his mouth in his mouth guard stopping his tongue more from moving at all, let alone forming clever words. He still was able to give dirty looks but they were not in the lease successful, Loki new for a fact he looked pitiful. Along with his rulership, they were robbing him of his pride.

* * *

His new surroundings were not that notable, he was in a glass room. There were mortals outside of the room watching his every move, every time Loki even shifted into a different sitting position it caused them to move around writing things down like frenzied ants. Loki paid them no mind; his thoughts were stuck on more pressing matters- for example, the punishment that would be given to him. Loki was getting inpatient at this point; it had been around at least five days from since the battle had ended, and none of the decisions made by either the humans or the Avengers had reached his ears. He was stuck in this horrible dull place being watched by multiple mortals like a caged beast; without even a visitor or a conversation.

It bored him so much it made his head ache, but Loki had no brilliant ideas at the time of how he could escape or even relieve himself of the deafening silence and mind numbing boredom. If he was at his full strength; maybe at the height of fitness that he had once had as an Asgardian prince he would beable to escape with ease. This wasn't the current case, not even remotely. He was in the process of healing at the time from the hulk inflected injuries and had really no drive to go and face the Chitauri at this time. Simply waiting would be the best course of action, but it didn't stop Loki from being bored and fidgety.

* * *

Loki was sprawled out on the ground, curled up in a ball and seemingly asleep to his Midgardian spectators. A man woke him up with a rude kick to the side and his eye's shot open at the impact. Loki managed to prop himself onto his knees to look up at his assailant without much difficulty, even though his hands were still bound. If his mouth hadn't been clamped shut by his mouth guard he would have been spitting out multiple insults but atlas, he was unable to speak, so he settled with an unsuccessful death glare.

It didn't take but a glance for Loki to recognize his assailant. It was Nick Fury. The man spoke in a harsh tone, his words dripping with loathing. "Follow me." Loki obliged, mobility was easy for him at this point, and his ribs were no longer in their pained state due to his godly healing rate. The only reminder of the brute's beating he has gotten was the stiffness in his formally broken arm. Loki kept his pace slow as he walked through the hall, ignoring the watching Midguardians. He walked slow testing the guards following behind him, but in exchange he received several prods in the back with items with Loki assumed were the midguardian's long distance weapons. He increased his pace to match Fury's at this point, not wanting to inflict more pain upon himself.

No words were exchanged during the movement through the halls; the guards and Fury were both stoic and Loki was unable to speak. It frustrated him but, he managed it even thought he wanted nothing more to retaliate against the morals surrounding. He knew it was futile, he was out numbered and his magic was bound by his forced silence.

* * *

Loki was transported by a Midgardian machine of transportation. The 'car' as the mortals called it was horribly bumpy but the uncomfortable ride was swift. Loki was flanked by both Fury and the mass of guards accompanying them as he and the mortals moved from the car in a formation. The mortals continued their formation in order to lead Loki to an area outside. The Guards cleared a path in front of him after a few steps away from the midguardian transportation. Loki scowled at what he saw. It was his brother along with his allies, the Avengers. What caught his eye most of all was the shimmering blue of the Tesseract clutched in his hand.

He kept walking toward his brother due to the brutish encouragement from the guards standing behind him. As he neared him, the blonde's face didn't change but Loki could even hear the slightest bit of happiness in his brother's tone.

"Brother, we shall return to Asgard together!"

Loki kept his expression the same but he automatically assumed that Thor's words meant that he would be receiving his punishment in Asgard rather than from the mortals. It wasn't anything to be desired and, knowing his brother, Loki thought that Thor was naïve enough to think everything would revert back to be much like before Thor's brief banishment and Loki's fall. And that Loki would return to once again, to being the shadow of the great Thor Odinson. It was a shame he was muzzled, for if he hadn't been, the snide and angry words he were sheltering could be let loose in Thor's direction. The other Avengers glared at Loki as he passed. He then stood in place with his brother, Thor held out the Tesseract to Loki. Loki, seeing no choice, reached his cuffed hands upwards in order to touch it.

The weightlessness of traveling through worlds began. It only lasted a few seconds before the twosome were transported to the remains of the Bifrost. The area was still tended to but it had a certain look of decay to it, pieces of the once great bridge between worlds were shattered along the ground, looking like the mortal substance called glass.

Thor started the swift walk to the palace by dragged Loki along with a firm hold on his arm. Thor's grip was tight, as if he was holding a slippery eel. He wasn't taking any chances with Loki-that was one of the observations Loki made about his brother. He also noticed Thor wouldn't slow his tongue. He kept speaking to Loki about how much the other Asgardians, along with Odin, missed him and how once again they would be at peace as brothers. Loki blocked him out pretty quickly; Thor was either guarding his tongue to not tell Loki of his impending punishment or Thor wasn't thinking properly, drunk off memories of kinship.

Loki started to think of ways he could escape, how he could leave Asgard once again, but no useful ideas came to his mind. The ones he thought of were foolish and implausible. Loki paled. He would have to face the Allfather.

* * *

They reached the palace sooner than Loki had hoped; he had wished that the travel would take an eternity so he wouldn't have to be standing in front of a throne. As Loki and Thor walked in, Thor kneeled and pushed Loki down so he would too. For a span of time there was silence in the golden hall. The Allfather watched Loki carefully, but Loki didn't meet his eyes. Loki refused to meet the blue eyes of the person he once knew as father because he was afraid of what sort of emotion could lie in them. Anger? Pity? _Disgust?_ Loki didn't know nor did he attempt to learn. He wouldn't let the old man affect his emotions anymore. The grizzled man spoke, his words strong and radiating power.

"Loki Odinson," Loki visually flinched as Odin addressed him as his son. "You are here to pay for your crimes against both Midgard and Asgard." Loki was silent; he was still unable speak still due to the carefully crafted Midgardian mouth guard. Loki started to raise his head; he wanted to see if the expression on the Allfather's face would change as he would Loki his punishment. To see if he would be affected when he spoke the words for his claimed relic's death. To see if he would care. His head was proudly raised upwards; he would not let this man dictate his actions nor his feelings. Not anymore.

The Allfather's attention reverted to the quiet Thor standing footsteps away from him.

"Thor, escort Loki to his cell." With another hand signal with his hand guards flooded in the room. "Please make sure Loki will stay put."

Loki's eyes were wide with a mix of anger and shock. More waiting and more imprisonment. Thor started to drag Loki along. If Loki could have put his silver tongue to action, he would be snarling out hateful phrases and rude sentences with no restraint. All that Loki was able to do at the time was think the venomous thoughts but the expression in his eyes said everything. A small group of guards walked ahead and behind both Thor and Loki. Murderous and angry thoughts were dominant in Loki's head, it beyond frustrated him that he would have to continue with the waiting. He often did have patience with most things but a topic as important and life changing as this one, Loki was impatient. The emotions of fear and defeat only increased with time. The walk from the great hall to where they stopped was very short, which puzzled him. The prison area was in a lower area and not to mention it was quite a distance away.

Thor stopped in front of a large, wooden door that was all too familiar to the green eyed god. Thor opened the door with a quick push and revealed the room in which Loki had lived in for the majority of his life. The door was opened to reveal the room in which Loki had lived for most of his life. Barely anything had changed in the room, but a heavy dust coated every surface. It was undisturbed. The thought of the past managed to make him feel the slightest bit of longing, but he blocked the thought from his head nearly as soon as it had occurred. Now wasn't the time to linger on what had been.

Thor smiled at Loki before moving slowly out the door without a word. A guard closed the door as Thor left and Loki assumed that they continued their vigil outside. Loki gave a muffled angry snort; he still had both his hands bound and his face muzzled. It was even more humiliating that even alone and imprisoned, he continued to be unable to speak.

After a while of silent brooding, Loki's thought's turned to working on a plan. He started pacing around the once familiar room, thinking of various ploys and tricks he could use, but he came up with nothing.

He finally came to the conclusion that he should rest. He neared the bed and was about to sit down on it- but he stopped and stared at the lavish bed. Various emotions started racing through Loki's head as he stared at the large king sized bed. His eyes were glued onto the patterns of green, black and gold as he remembered the past. Of how Frigga calmed him down after bad dreams, of when he and Thor used to have sleepovers even though their rooms were beside each other and many more. Loki snatched a pillow from the giant bed and moved over to another corner of the room right beside one of his bookshelves. He slid down the wall and curled into a tight ball on the chilly marble floor.

* * *

Voices were raised in the throne room. Both of them kept a rational tone but they made no restraint to hide in force between their words.

"Father! Loki is your burden as well as mine! Both of us need to aid him in healing his soul sickness!"

"Thor, he is out of control. Nothing can heal that bitterness."

"It is because of us that he has it!"

The shouting continued for hours, but neither of them would yield from their ideals. It was only then when Thor had a new idea when a decision was made.

"I could help him!"

"How? He rejects your assistance."

"He is my brother!"

"He thinks differently."

"That is his soul sickness speaking. He needs people that he can find peace with."

"Where would such people? With the Jotuns?"

"No! He needs to learn from his mistakes from the ones he has wronged!"

"The Midgardians?"

"Exactly, my friends could help him! I learned many things from my Midgardian friends. He could learn just as much!"

Odin seemed fascinated by the idea. The memory of when Thor was banished to Midgard came to mind- how that one event shaped Thor into an ideal ruler, but he didn't think it would affect Loki much at all. As much as it hurt to admit, however, he had no other ideas. Odin started to speak again after his brief consideration of the idea.

"Your friends, the ones that you address as the Avengers, would they accept Loki into their care?"

* * *

"Hell, no!" An angry yell flooded the room. It was a large room with seven people sitting around a large table; the outburst came from the man with a faint blue glow coming from his chest. That one outburst sparked multiple branches of conversation in the group; most of which were angry and loud, much to the discomfort to a man with a purple shirt.

"Friends!" A booming voice silenced all of them. Thor continued what he was saying before Tony's interjection. "All Loki needs is some people for guidance. He needs to learn that mortals are actually just like him."

"Pfff! Did he tell you that? It's a lie Thor. He's the _god_ of lying." Tony said in a scathing tone, putting extra emphases on the word lying.

"No friend, he hasn't spoken a words since he had his month enclosed with the metal device. This is my idea."

The Avengers seemed genuinely surprised by that, most of them tried to choose their words carefully at this point.

"Loki is dangerous, Thor, letting him back onto our planet would be sure to cause another mishap," Natasha spoke up, being very careful with her words. She didn't need Thor getting angry, she nor anyone else needed thunderstorms or rain when people were trying to fix the ruined city from Loki's last visit.

"No, this time it would be different. My father has already prepared a device in order to keep his powers from him. He would be much like any other mortal."

The seventh member of the meeting spoke, his words were cold. "And why should we let that wreak back into our city?"

It took Thor a few seconds in order to think up a reason, "Because if he is here serving the Avengers, he has no time, no space or no power in order to compose another plan, Fury."

Fury was about to speak again when Tony interrupted, "Wait what? Serving?" Tony caught a word that confused him. Were they going to have to rehabilitate a lunatic or would they be getting foot rubs from a lunatic?

"Friend, the Allfather wants Loki to learn humility, so, in and exchange for what he had done, he will serve you. I would not propose an offer than only makes my friends unhappy."

Before Tony made a tasteless joke about maid dresses Fury spoke. "So, you practically want a potentially dangerous criminal to serve the team in order to keep him out of trouble?"

Thor answered, "Well yes, but more of the reason is that he needs to be taught-" Thor was cut off by Fury.

"That seems acceptable but if he steps one _toe_ out of line, he will be eradicated."

Thor agreed to his terms as soon as they left Fury's mouth. Another voice spoke up at the table. His tone was cold and had traces of a sneer. "What if he doesn't follow our orders and decides to revert back to his nasty lying self?" Clint's face was angry as he started at Thor.

"He shouldn't act that way, he knows the other options available and he is clever enough to see that this option is much better than the others." At the mention of that a slightly fearful expression crossed Thor's face. The other Avengers didn't question what the other options were but they assumed the worst. "Also the Allfather does have precautions against that are flawless." Many discussions followed but they mostly consisted of the Avengers (Especially Tony) repeating how much they didn't want to be around Loki again. Fury was set on the answer and couldn't be swayed,however. He thought of it as a good idea because when and not if, Loki starts his evil and insane ways again, Fury had the permission to eradicate the tyrant and it would be easily done too, due to the fact Thor implied that they would rob the demi-god of his abilities.

Almost a day after Thor was prepared to return to Asgard in order to tell Loki and his father the good news.

* * *

Loki continued his time of solitude in his former room. None of the guards or even Thor came to speak with him and Loki was still silenced by the muzzle decorating his face. It was _maddening;_ Loki yearned to speak once again; it was something he enjoyed doing thoroughly and constantly, and losing it overwhelmed Loki. It wasn't a problem for Loki's nutritional needs though; he was a god and didn't need much food at all; but he felt so insignificant over the past few days. No one acknowledged his existence. He was just another stolen relic, used only when deemed useful.

On the fourth day of his imprisonment in Asgard someone came.

It was Thor, he walking into the room with yet another stupid smile on his face. "Brother, father has decided." Loki assumed by Thor's expression that Thor was either pleased with whatever punishment that was chosen, or fully believed the Allfather to be merciful. Both options caused Loki to scowl under his muzzle. Few guards accompanied Loki and Thor for this travel. The footsteps echoed into the halls and Loki attempted to focus on that rather than his panicked thoughts and accelerating heartbeat.

The pace was fast and in no time at all Loki was kneeling in front of the Allfather once again.

Odin wasted no time and his rumbling voice filled the room, "Loki Odinson, for loss of more than 80 Midgardian lives and the destruction of the Bifrost-" Loki held back a chuckle as the Allfather didn't mention of how he had eliminated many more Jotuns. Of course the great Allfather wouldn't concern himself with such pitiful beasts. "I grant you your punishment." Odin paused and Loki tensed, waiting to learn of his fate.

"You will serve the Midgardians known as the Avengers. Your sentence will last until Thor deems that you have learned from your mistakes. If you do not complete your sentence, you will never return to Asgard nor ever regain your magic."

Loki froze in shock. He was to serve the ones who would much rather see him dead? They would just kill him as soon as they laid eyes upon him! Without his magic he had next to no defense against their attacks. If they were planning to have him die by the hands of another, wouldn't having a public execution be much more convenient? Odin noticed the panic and confusion on Loki's face and let out another bellow, this time with less force. "Thor, remove the mouth guard."

Thor was standing footsteps away from both Odin and Loki, but with a few quick bounds he removed the hateful piece of metal from Loki's mouth. Loki have to force the words from his mouth, the lack of use made the once clear and manipulative words raw and ragged. "They will kill me." Loki's words cracked in places as he formed the words with his dry tongue.

"No Loki, they are bound by oath not to." Odin stood up from his throne and started walking toward the disgraced god. Two items seemed to materialize in Odins hands. One was quite familiar to Loki; it was a collar like object covered in ruins. It was coloured green and gold, as if to add insult to injury. Loki winced as the cold metal like collar was set upon his neck, when touched his flesh Loki could feel himself grow weaker instantly. It absorbed his magic; much like a mighty wolf would devour a lamb. Loki could still feel his magic but much like a valve that has turned off, he couldn't harness it. It was the ultimate woe and insult to befall a magician. Unintentionally Loki shoulders sagged in defeat, but he corrected himself in haste.

He emerald eyes moved to the second object with a mix of curiosity and dread. The object was coloured pure black; it had not even the slightest shine or flaw except for one word glowing with white. Odin placed this object around Loki's neck also. Unlike like the first collar the metal of the object burned Loki's throat and he recoiled from the pain. It's strange and terrible power reached every part of him, filling him with waves upon waves of wild pain. It felt like some sort of strange electricity was traveling through his body. The pain continued as Odin recited varies words of magic, and even through the agony, Loki could tell what it meant easily; it was a binding spell.

As Odin stopped his magic words, the power of the collar ran through Loki at a much stronger strength. He collapsed to the ground, holding back unshed tears. The waves of pain increased in both speed and volume, and it felt as if his very veins were burning with electricity. It hurt countless times more than when that green brute had beaten him against the ground. Loki's breathing was heavy as the torment continued. Odin said something to Thor but Loki's mind was now blank save for a feral desire to rid himself of the pain. His hands were scratching at the collar but as soon as his hands touched it the energy increased in power. At that point Loki started to reach for his throat, desperate to end the agony, but Thor tackled Loki to the ground and stopped the trashing, holding Loki down. Thor reached his hand out to touch the alien object lightly, and the effortless touch of Thor's hand had stopped it all. The torture hadn't faded; it was just _gone_. The after affects still remained, however, and Loki didn't bother to stand up; his eyes were wide and wild in shock.

Thor seemed to look a little shaken by the collar, but he didn't speak up. It was better for Loki to serve his sentence on Midgard rather than suffer the previously suggested punishment. The thought of that made Thor shudder.

"Thor, pick Loki up so I can send the both of you to Midgard." The Allfather wasted no time. From beside his throne he pulled out the Tesseract. The artifact pulsed with blue light as Odin started to use some of its power. Thor slung the stunned Loki over his shoulder as the both of them were engulfed by blue.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: ****You guys are awesome! I didn't think I would get such a positive response for my story. ^^ I thank all of my reviews and readers, every alert and review made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. **

**Ah, this chapter took me the longest time to do, I guess starting up a story right before exams wasn't the smartest thing to do. XD The next chapter should be out much quicker, I am on summer break. This chapter is pretty boring by my standards but almost all expositions are that way, next chapter should be much more interesting. **

**_Disclaimer: I do not own The Avengers. _**

* * *

The Avengers stood together in a large room. There were no words exchanged between them. Even Tony Stark was quiet for once. Each and everyone one of them was in full uniform. Except for Tony, Fury deemed that Tony was in too ill of temper to have many deadly explosives on hand. They were waiting and by the scowls on their faces, they weren't waiting for a dear friend to arrive. Not in the least.

Clint's hands were fixed on both an arrow and on his bow. He was in a position in which he could make a quick shot right between the eyes of the enemy, he had an arrow fixed on the string of his bow. Natasha looked fairly calm, her face gave away nothing but it was easy to see her hand resting upon a pair of hand guns at her sides. Tony Stark was tensed in place, both weary of what was too come and still seething from the past events of the day.

* * *

Tony Stark was unhappy. He stood watching multiple men in uniforms ravage his home. Upon their chests a word was written, separated by several periods. S.H.I.E.L.D. The large group of people was moving throughout the house, all of them with different tasks. Some were checking all the nooks and crannies in the house while others were installing multiple wires. Some of the technicians were even testing out the various systems, cameras and traps. They all moved around like frenzied ants.

Tony Stark didn't care, he wanted them OUT. The expression on his face described that wish fully; it was a mix of a pout and a grimace. Out of all the places they had to pick Stark towers. Fury's reasoning was simple but yet it pissed Tony off. "All of you are best suited to the job; we have no use of most of your Team's abilities at the current time except for this current mission. If Mr. Odinson decides to pull another stunt like that we need the Avengers to take him down. Plus both you and two of the others already have established residence in the tower." Babysitters, that's all they were. Watching over a 100 year old brat. He was a freaking billionaire! Hell he was also a genius playboy philanthropist but a babysitter was definitely not one of his titles. Unlike the other Avengers he had a life other than being a hero. He had to run Stark industries and invent stuff! Thor just lived in his house and ate his food when not in Ass-gard. Steve just lived in his house and ate his food.

Now he would have a temperamental, manipulative, murderous insane demi-god living in his house and eating his food. His bad mood grew worst at that thought and he kicked the wall angrily. His foot hit the wall with force, a siren started to blare and the whole hallway was filled with flashing red lights. Tony let out a string of curses; his foot hurt a lot due to his burst of anger. That wasn't even the worst part. A net came flying from the ceiling, landing on Tony's head.

Unlike the common woven fishing net, with one had steel cords. It knocked Tony to the ground with its weight. That's when he lost it; many extremely rude curses started flooding from his mouth as he started to get tangling in the very large net with his thrashing. A good amount of the people working on the room paused in place, watching the scene play before them with a mix of horror and humor on their faces. A few of the most sadistic ones were trying to hold back laughter at the pathetic sight of Tony wriggling around on the floor. If they laughed and angered the billionaire, they knew of the misfortunes that could befall them. For example waking up in the middle of Sahara desert tied to an Ostriches back wouldn't be the worst thing the billionaire could do.

Tony had the net removed from him, it was off but he was still furious. He started yelling something about nets being banished and long strung out curses at both Fury and Loki. The main thought in his head was, Fury better not have gotten video.

* * *

Tony kept giving glares at Nick Fury that stood just a few steps from him. Nick Fury made no intentions of either denying he had a video of the event nor did he even respond to Tony's angry words. He assumed that it would be used for blackmail or either as revenge when Tony _displeased_ Fury again. Which looking at past events, the video would probably be all over YouTube before the end of the day.

The least tense Avenger was one off to the side, it was Steve. He felt more nervous rather than out right hostile. Thor promised that Loki would be easy to handle and precautions would be added for his stay, from both Thor's father and from Nick Fury. He had no idea what Thor's father would do in order to keep Loki from his destructive magic but he was confident in the technology Fury had installed in Stark Tower even though he had no idea how it worked.

The team wasn't complete thought, there was one person missing. Bruce Banner took another plane off to yet another distant third world country early in the morning. Fury didn't want to let him go but after the arguments escalated with Bruce turning a little green, Fury gave in. Bruce wanted some down time in order to establish more control over the other guy and to attempt to calm down, transforming into the other guy often was both physically and emotionally taxing for Banner. Plus Tony added in a helpful statement when he contributed in the argument from before, "If he goes green and destructive, you may have to rebuild your base completely. You better get your lemonade stands up to get the money to do so. 'Cause I'm sure as hell not footing out the bill." It made Fury focus his anger out on Tony rather than the man that which had the potential to snap and kill everybody in the room.

A bright light filled the room, causing everyone to flinch. The light was much brighter than any camera flash and it left the humans dazed. Clint managed to let loose an arrow in reflex. The arrow whizzed past Thor's head, ruffling his blonde hair and imprinting it's self into a nearby wall. Reactively Clint hid his bow behind his back like a child being scolded as Thor's eyes came to rest upon him.

"I'm sorry my friends for surprising you!" Thor said in his booming voice. Clint's attention changed focus as he started glaring at the dark haired man standing behind Thor. Loki looked different from their last encounter, Clint noticed Loki's slightly slouched shoulders and the angry red marks around his neck. On those observations his eyes settled on the two collars wrapping around the green eyed man's neck. Loki seemed to have noticed that most of the people in the room were glaring at him and sizing him up, he straightened up, attempting to masquerade as the man that almost succeeded in taking over Earth more than a week ago.

Thor seemed to take a large envelope from out of a small satchel hanging down his side. (Or as Tony called it, a man-purse.) "Friends! Odin sent you the letter in order to let you learn of Loki's…" Thor paused and said with hesitance. "Condition." Loki didn't say anything but the glare Thor received explained everything. Thor took out a roll of what looked like the dried skin of some animal from the envelope and sat it upon the table. The group of Avengers hunched over the table looking at the golden words written elegantly in handwriting. Loki strayed away from the mass of people with an expression of distaste on his face.

* * *

Greetings Midgardian Warriors, the Avengers

As you accepted my terms, here is Loki. He will serve out his sentence under the watchful eyes of your warriors. You can do as you wish with him along as you abide by our agreement that you will not kill him.

His magic is sealed by the emerald and gold collar around his neck. I've enchanted it so that it can be taken off him by any one of you if you truly believe he has been renewed. Be warned, getting it back around his neck after it has been taken off will be an agonizingly complex task. It is not recommended you take it off for any sort of reason. I haven't taken his magic from him completely due to the fact it is connected to him in such a way, stealing it away permanently could cause insanity. If Loki starts to act strangely, it is because his current inability to manipulate his magic and he may get into a frenzied panic from the maddening feeling that it is there but he can't use it. If he gets in such a state in which he loses control of his actions, restraint him until the fit is over.

The second neck accessory is enchanted with a binding spell. By placing one of the included tags each person who places it upon his collar, will have power over Loki. There are 5 tags, one for each of the Avengers. (The tags are not to be used by anyone else) Only put them on Loki's neck when the human with the tag plans to be in the presence of Loki for a great amount of time. Being far away from the ones who he is bound by will cause him pain and cause extreme burden upon his body and mind. Be warned abuse of the power or taking it off will make the ability lose its effectiveness.

In order to use the ability of the binding, you need to say his name with a malicious tone and imagine Loki in peril. You need to feel as if Loki deserves to be dying on the floor. Using the collar will not bring on his death, rather it will mimic it, making Loki less included to fight against your team. When saying his name you need to put your anger and force every syllable with clarity. The ability will not trigger if you are intoxicated or just simply frustrated with Loki. You need to consciously put force into your words.

The longevity of Loki's banishment on Midgard will be determined on Thor's judgment. If Thor believes Loki has strayed from his path of destruction, he will be granted access to Asgard once again and he would regain his magic. He is the only one other than I that has the ability to undo second binding collar.

If Loki attempts to wreak havoc once again on your planet he will face Asgardian justice once again, but he will not be shown mercy as my son.

Odin, Allfather.

* * *

Each of the Avengers finished the list. The golden words didn't do anything to ease the scowls upon their faces. Thor after he was satisfied that everyone read the entire list, he dumped the remaining contents of the envelope into one of his large muscled hands. Five silver tags feel into his hands with a clatter. His voice sounded louder than usual compared with the previous silence.

"My friends please come forward." In a lower tone Thor asked Natasha a question, "May I borrow one of your knives Lady Natasha?" Thor received a glare as he called Natasha a lady but she unstrapped a small knife from a pocket on her thigh. She passed it to him handle first and he took it slowly. Thor's booming voice was not filled with joy he normally spoke with; it was said in a somber tone. "Each tag needs a drop of blood from their intended person in order for the blinding spell to be cast."

Tony started to speak with a smirk crossing his face. "Does it need to be blood? I'm quite fine using another bod-"

Natasha stopped Tony with a kick to the shins. She didn't even give Tony a backwards glance as he recoiled back in pain. "If you are looking for a drop, this may be better suited." Natasha pulled a much small weapon from a hidden pocket on the right arm of her body suit. It was an extremely narrow silver weapon, it looked much more like a thin nail rather than a knife. Thor gave a nod in thanks as he took the small weapon from Natasha.

"Man of Iron and Captain American." Thor began to speak. Tony stopped muttering profanity and Steve seemed to stand up straighter as the both of them were addressed. "Please use this knife in order to expel blood from your finger. Only a drop will be needed."

Steve didn't look very thrilled with the idea but he reached for the blade. Thor gave him it and picked one of the tags up, passing it to the blonde man. He made a small nick in his finger and let a drop drip onto the silver tablet. What happened made Steve give a surprised gasp and dropped the small metallic tablet on the ground with a clatter. He quickly picked it up, his face turning slightly pink that he let such a small event startle him. The metal changed during the contact with the blood. Rather than the plain silver it once was, dark red runes appeared upon the silver. Blood also stained it giving it a grungy effect.

Thor had Tony do the same thing right after, the only difference was that he didn't drop the tablet and he gave Steve a hard time for doing so. Thor's booming voice once again filled the room, "Now you much place the binding tablets to the object of binding placed upon my brothers neck."

The uncharacteristically silent god's head show up from its position of staring at the floor to look at the approaching humans. They walked slowly but watched Loki as if they were moving toward a rabid dog. An emotion crossed Loki's face for a second as they approached he cleared it off as soon as he realized it was showing. It was mind numbing fear. Loki started to edge away from them, going backward much like a cornered animal. Steve stopped in place as he watched Loki back into a solid object, the panic on his face an evident at that time and his silver tongue seemed to leave him. With a pang, Steve compared Loki to his former self without the Super Soldier Serum. He attempted pushing away those emotions without much success; it sickened him that he sympathized with the disgraced god. He killed Coulson and countless others. He was a monster.

Thor was the solid object that Loki backed into, in realizing this; an even more panicked expression filled his eyes. Steve was surprised at Loki's behavior, of what he had saw of the demi-god before, the Asgardian always acted as if he was in control of all situations by keeping calm and cocky constantly. This was no longer the case. The former villain looked more like trapped animal, trying to escape by any means possible. The demi-god didn't even try to use his honeyed words; he attempted to force Thor away from him. It didn't work at all thought; Thor was obviously the stronger of the two. He proved the fact even more so when he wrapped his arms over Loki's thin frame. Even though he was trapped, Loki still struggled, trying to force the larger man away from him. A few feral snarls ripped from his throat directed at Thor. Thor seemed to be shaken by his brother's behavior by the expression on his face but his hold on the crazed villain didn't waver.

Thor muttered a few words to his brother very quietly. "I'm sorry," but it didn't help in the slightest. It seemed provoked Loki even more, causing him to struggle even more. Thor pinned both of Loki's arms to his side, restricting his movement. Loki seemed to find his words once again because rather than the snarls and grunts, he was speaking in a language foreign to Steve. Everyone of his words were laced with venom. Thor seemed to understand it though; he flinched at the words Loki spat out.

Thor's voice sounded loudly over Loki's hisses, "Man of Iron, Captain America. Put the binding tablets on the dark coloured collar around my brother's neck." By Thor's words Loki seemed to struggle even harder. Even Thor at this point was finding it hard to hold onto the scrawny green eyed god.

"Ladies first." Tony Stark spoke up, moving his body in a mocking bow. Steve paid him no mind as he moved toward the two Asgardians cautiously.

Steve was faced with a predicament when he stood right in front of the thrashing demi god. He had no idea how to place the tablet on Loki's color. There wasn't a clip or a hole on both the tablet and the collar. Both of them were completely solid without even the slightest flaw. "Um, Thor? How do I get it onto the collar?"

Thor frowned at Steve calling it a collar because it started Loki on another spree of threats and insults but he answered back quickly in a puzzled tone. "You just place it upon and the binding spell will be created between you and my brother."

Steve gave a leap of faith as he reached his arm out with the silver tablet clasped between his fingers. Thor retrained Loki, stopping him from moving almost entirely as Steve inched closer. It didn't stop Loki from continuing his angry rant directed toward Thor in a foreign language. His teeth were bared as Steve inched closer until he was finally an arm's length apart. He moved slowly, not wanting to get his hand bitten by the struggling Loki. He only rushed when Thor spoke out. "Faster!"

Steve touched the small seemingly metal tablet to the black collar around Loki's neck and Loki stopped his struggling and froze. His body was tense as if he was bracing to be hit. Steve was paralyzed where he stood; the collar reacted to the tablet in a both confusing and strange way. Where the tablet touched the collar it had lost its smooth shape, instead long black tendrils wrapped around the tablet, shining with the brilliance of a liquid. It moved as if it were a real beast, its movements were of its own accord. The thing pulled the tablet from Steve's and pulled it into the main body of the black collar. It looked much like a snake devouring a mouse. Before completely returning to its collar stat, a cord of black slime rested upon Steve's hand for only a second. He was frozen in place, his muscles unwilling to move as collar residue burned his finger. It felt as if he had placed his finger onto the top of a hot oven. What felt like hours the collar, the collar withdrawn back onto Loki's skin, leaving a shocked and surprised Steve in its wake.

"What the fuck was that?" Clint was the first to speak up.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: Ah this chapter came out much quicker than the last. I think this one is more entertaining also. Just so you guys know, I won't be writing this story in a constantly serious tone. It will be on and off between serious and humorous chapters all because I usually like to take a humorous spin on things. (Serious part and plot will still be there though)**

**I have to thank you guys again for the response, I'm getting so many positive reviews and lots of attention and that is really a first for my writing. So thank you guys. **

**And of course, leaving reviews may make me more inclined to release chapters faster. ^^**

_**Disclaimer: I do not own The Avengers.**_

* * *

This second tablet to be added was placed quickly. Loki was no longer flailing, he seemed to just stop. His eyes wandered and a frown was permanently fixated on his face. When the collar moved from its collar shape once again, to grasp the tag from Tony's hand, he was indifferent. Everything was lost; the pitiful mortals had power over him. The worst part that made Loki grind his teeth together was that he was unable to free himself. He had no power over his fate. When the Avengers were reading the note directed toward them, Loki had tested the horrid enchanted contraption placed over his neck. He remembered how the collar reacted with the slightest bit of unease.

* * *

Loki gave a glance over toward the focused Avengers, by the volume of Thor's words; Loki heard everything even though he was across the room. Loki refused to look at group of misfits gathered around the bulky shape of Thor; it brought memories of failure and brutal beatings. Instead he turned his attention on the two collars wrapped around his neck. He couldn't see them but he could feel the cool metal around his neck constantly. This made it so that their presence was always known, there was no forgetting. It spited him even more that Odin had decided on placing both of the spells in the form of collars, a contraption that was used to hold domestic midgardian animals when he could have just as easily placed the enchantments in objects such of anklets, bracelets or even in the form of ring.

His hands reached over to the collar that was holding his magic back. The metal was ice cold; it burned with the frigidness of the touch of an ice giant. Loki withdrew his grip from the collar quickly as he noticed the tips of his fingers turning blue. With the cease of contact between his fingers and the collar, his fingers turned back to the former pale Asgardian colour.

He waited a little while as he listened to the intent rustling of papers a distance away into the room, his eyes were fixated on his fingers. He went back into movement in order for his hand to inch toward second collar. He was extremely weary with the second due to the pain it had caused him in the throne room of the Allfather. He paused for a few second only but a nails length away from the obsidian coloured collar. His hand launched forward in order to touch it with the pad of his forefinger. As his fingers settled on it, a numbing shock filled his body, starting with his finger. As soon as it startled Loki move his finger from the oddly warm surface. It wasn't as much as painful but Loki only settled his finger on it for less than a second. He moved his hands away from the collar, not eager to see if longevity increased the power of shock to the point of the previous attack.

Loki didn't even notice the red burn beginning to show on the pad of his forefinger.

* * *

Loki rid his face of the depressed expression as soon as he realized he was wearing his emotions on his sleeve. He met the Avenger's cold glares with his own. The man known as Fury started to speak, his current tone revealed that he was in charge, his stature and tone shown Loki that the man was very confident with his abilities of leadership. The man's confidence reminded Loki of himself previous to his defeat to the Avengers. Seeing the similarities infuriated Loki slightly rather than soothing him, he hated any similarities he had to the inferiors species. Loki met the man's glare. Fury spoke his words with clarity and venom, his attention directed toward Loki. "Listen, you are now in our custody now and severe consequences will be issued if you decide to threaten our planet once again. This agreement was made in order keep peace with Asgard and it relates nothing to our love of you. If you step out of line once, you will be cut down. Understand?"

Loki kept up his glare but said nothing. His throat still felt ragged from the angry statements he addressed Thor with during his binding and from the previous attack from the collar. He didn't think having a voice crack in the middle of a conversation with enemies would be the best thing for his pride and image.

Fury seemed to accept Loki's silence as he turned toward the gathered ground of Avengers. "Natasha, Clint. You are to meet me I my office for your debriefing on your next mission." The two spies seemed to give a small bow in sync. "Thor, Steve, Stark. There are a group of agents that have orders to escort Loki to Stark towers along with you." Steve nodded, Thor let out a few loud words and Tony mumbled something angrily under his breath.

Fury pretended not to notice Tony's mumbling as he walked out the door with Natasha and Clint, leaving the large black door wide open. The open door revealed a large group of stone-faced agents waiting outside. A female that was standing in the front moved in order to stand in doorway, her face and tone betraying no emotion. "A car is waiting for all of you, please follow me." Without waiting for an answer the female agent started walking down the hall. The remaining Avengers followed, Loki was being pushed forward by Thor. The larger man was sure to keep Loki an arms length away at all time, remembering multiple occasions when Loki escaped him to wreak havoc among people among Asgard. The thought of old Loki caused Thor's spirits to fall as Loki ignored him fully. The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents moved around the small group of Avengers and Loki in a formation, not leaving any form of a gap between them. They walked in sync with each other, making Tony give audible mutter of "Robots."

Loki marveled at the agents. It humored him that unlike Thor or most of the midgardians he had seen other than the widow, they were able to form masks of indifference. Not all of them held such the same stature, some of them had their fists clenched or were gnawing their lips. Loki knew enough about the mortals that those were signs of nervousness. Loki assumed that it was him causing the discomfort of the mortals and he relished it. Unlike the pitiful Avengers, a few of the mortals recognized their insignificant compared to the superior being standing just footsteps away from them. A faint smile trickled onto his face.

The walk through the long white hallways of the building seemed to take hours but at last they reached a clear glass door way. It opened with the touch of the female Agents finger and the Avengers moved in formation with the Agents still surrounding them. Loki guessed that the agents had both the intention of protecting them from outside forces and stopping them from escaping. Three large black cars awaited them, all with tinted windows. The female agent spoke again with her emotionless tone, "All of you will be riding in the middle car." In response to her words, another Agent walked over to the car and held the door open. It revealed a large area consisting of multiple seats in a layout very similar to a limo. Loki could still feel the firm grasp of Thor's heavy arm around his thin shoulders; it didn't get any better as Thor practically pushed Loki into the car.

He kept his grace as he moved to the farthest seat from the door, the only thought running through his mind was, Please don't let the brute sit beside me, please don't let the brute sit beside me, please don't let the brute sit beside me. He repeated those thoughts to himself, hoping that his wish would be granted with the repetition of his thinking. His prayer was unanswered as Thor collapsed onto the seat right beside Loki. The brute didn't even abide to the rules of personal space as was pressed into his younger brother by the entering Agents. Steve took the other side of Loki, much to the scrawny god's displeasure. The only person that was as unhappy as Loki was the man that was stalling his entrance into the packed car. Tony.

He was closest to the car but he had waited for Steve to move into the car so he wouldn't have to anywhere near Loki. He wasn't a fan of the pale skinned god, not even slightly. Steve and Thor could just deal with the brat and Tony would continue with his work. That was the game plan that Tony had in mind for the time in which they were stuck babysitting the temperamental god. As he sat in the car, he took the seat closest to the door, causing many of the Agents that were assigned to ride standing awkwardly in the doorway. After a moment of consideration one of the Agents spoke to Tony, "May you move down Stark?"

Tony dismissed the Agent with a simple word, "Nope." This caused the Agent to start grumbling and crawling awkwardly over Tony's outstretched legs. Tony was known as being genius billionaire playboy philanthropist but it was also a well known fact that he didn't tend to "play" well with others.

The Agents kept their eyes on the uncharacteristically quiet demigod. Loki didn't pay them any attention, his head was turned at an angle in which he could stare out the window. Thor kept trying to start up a friendly conversation with the green eyed man beside him but he was silenced every time with a cold glare. Even thought it seemed as if his attempts were destined not to prove successful no matter how many times he would try, he continued on with his persistence. Steve noticed a change in Loki's behavior in which his hands were balling into fists and his face taking on a more forced look of indifference. He assumed that Loki was getting close to his breaking point. Hoping to stop such an event Steve started a conversation with Thor about Pop Tarts and other interesting foods that both he and Steve encountered in the 21st century.

Loki seemed to relax slightly and return to his post of staring out the window. Thor seemed to have an attitude change as well as he wore a grin on his face due to the conversation of food. Steve was just relieved he didn't have to see Thor's dejected puppy-dog eyes any longer from Loki's coldness.

Finally the car stopped and the doors were opened by groups of more stony-faced Agents. The small group of Avengers and Loki stepped out of the car to be greeted by the massive sight of Stark Tower. It seemed to be in pristine condition, causing Loki to frown and talk, "Didn't I decimate your castle during my last visit Stark?"

Tony started to walk toward his tower, "Yes but the power of money can fix anything."

Loki frown deepened as he followed Tony into the tower. Thor and Steve trailed behind, surpassing the relaxed walk of both Tony and Loki. Tony pressed his hand against a dark coloured pad on the wall and a disembodied started to speak from the building as the door opened by itself. The surprise of another voice caused both Loki and Thor to jump.

"Greetings sir. Pepper delivered paper-work approximately 2 hours ago. Do you wish to hear the message that s-?"

"Not right now Jarvis." Tony said quickly, cutting the disembodied voice off. "I need to relay the rules to my new house guest." Tony hissed out the last two words and directed his attention to the taller thin green eyed demi-god standing before him. "You are not to touch any of my stuff nor are you allowed to go into my lab. You are not to talk to me nor are you allowed to smother anyone in their sleep. There are precautions issued for your stay and unless you would rather live in the cell Fury installed in the basement I suggest you follow my rules." At the end of his speech Tony stalked off with a final sentence directed toward the quiet Steve and Thor. "He's all yours."

With Tony leaving abruptly, all was left was a group of three standing in the middle of a hallway stuck in an awkward silence. Loki broke it by leaving the hallway in order to begin his exploration of the home. Steve and Thor followed after him like lost puppies. Thor kept rambling on about things, Loki wasn't listening in the slightest to be honest. He kept hearing the repetition of the words, "Midgardian, breakfast, food, magnificent and Pop-tart." Loki gave either of them no acknowledgment as he made his way into the main floor kitchen. Every one of the appliances matched in the colours of silver. Loki's eyes settled on the biggest appliance in the room, the refrigerator. His eyes examined every piece of the contraption with clarity and when he was confident with his findings he reached for the black handle. The door opened with little resistance and Loki flinched slightly from the cool that flooded from the rectangular box.

"That is called a fridge brother! The mortals use it to chill their meats!" Thor seemed to find that Loki's naivety of midgardian appliances was something that they could bond over once again. Like the hunting trips and expeditions between realms that they once went on together. His excitement was in vain thought.

"Does it look like I care?" Loki hissed out with venom directed to his brother. That simple action wiped the grin off Thor's face with ease. Thor walked away slowly looking extremely dejected. Loki couldn't help but let a smirk make an appearance upon his face. Steve scowled at Loki's behavior and spoke up. "That's no way to treat him Loki. He is the only one here that believes in you and I don't think your sanity would improve if he was to give up on you." Steve glared at Loki one last time before stalking off to comfort the fled Asgardian. Loki's mocking smirk dissolved into a scowl as he reverted his attentions back to the "Fridge." It was filled with all sorts of coloured items in which Loki assumed were food. He closed the fridge as he lost interest; none of the mortal's food interested him.

He settled with having a seat at the table and taking a green apple which was placed in a fruit basket sitting in the center. It was quiet and within three seconds of sitting down, Loki was bored. The only sounds heard was the muffled voices of Steve and Thor in another room along with the crunch of Loki chewing his apple. After he finished his apple, he placed it on the table, wondering where the proper place to dispose of it was. From his past observation of the midgardians, he noticed that they would dispose of anything they didn't want to use or had no need for. He heard footsteps and he turned to meet the person making them. It was Thor.

Without any of the venom from before Loki spoke, "Where can I dispose of this Thor?" He gestured to the apple core placed on the table.

"Just leave it there bro-"

"Don't call me that." Loki cut Thor off before he could finish his sentence.

"-ther." He continued much to the displeasure of Loki. "Friend Stark wouldn't mind if you just left it were it is." Stark would mind, Loki thought to himself as an idea started to formulate in his head. An unpleasant smile crossed Loki's face as he reached for an orange coloured fruit. He remembered in his last visit that they were called oranges, a horribly uncreative name even for the mortals. Loki gave a chuckle; he felt a little better when he had something to scheme about, the past day forgotten. He peeled the bright skin from the circular fruit as Thor watched him carefully. Thor knew by the grin Loki was up to something, with a pang it reminded him of their youth and the many nasty tricks he would play on both him and others. As he left the room, Thor could only hope he wasn't the subject this time.

* * *

"Jarvis, where is our resident super villain at the current time?" Words were spoken, flanked by a yawn. Tony gave a glance at the clock, giving a glance at the time. It was around 4am. Tony spent most of his time working on a new addition on his iron man suit; time did feel much shorter when he was on a spurt of genius.

The disembodied British voice answered. "He is in the main floor kitchen."

Tony was baffled. He knew Thor slept, much longer than most humans in fact (Tony remembered the time in the helicarrier in which Thor slept a full 22 hours prior to Loki's escape), so why didn't his younger brother? "What is he doing?" Tony didn't think Loki would be able to work any of the machines in the kitchen and if he tried, it would probably be the some outcome as the battle of blenders. (Or as Thor titled it, the slaying of beast who goes "Werrrrrr.")

"He is drinking apple juice and sitting on the top of a counter." That answer caught Tony off guard. He didn't expect Loki to adapt to the modern world so easily. Something seemed off about the answer so Tony decided to go check it out himself. He walked into the elevator and pressed a few buttons. His destination was only a floor above but Tony had long ago decided that billionaires were not to walk up stairs, especially at in the morning. The elevator was quiet, he had Jarvis programed to turn on stereotypical irritating elevator music for everyone but him. The quiet ding told Tony that he was on the destined floor. He walked out the door to hear nothing but quiet. Loki didn't seem to be making noise at all, he was thankful for that but it also raised his suspicions. He thought bag of cats Loki would be much louder and maybe a bit more crazy. Maybe doing things like chatting with none existent people and carrying a conversation with himself much like Smeagal. The mental image Tony had of Loki before he arrived at the tower was a raving lunatic that threw him out a window.

His footsteps echoed in the empty hallway and Tony would never admit it, but it did make him slightly nervous. It was dark and gloomy, so Tony remedied the situation with speaking aloud. "Jarvis please turn on the hallway lights." Within a second of Tony's order the lights turned on, temporally blinding Tony. He kept moving as he rubbed his eyes, attempting to get the light from his eyes. He was a few steps from the kitchen so he just continued on his way, still rubbing his eyes.

He stopped outside of the doorway of the kitchen; his fatigued state was slow to react and looked into the kitchen. His eyes were frozen on the sight that beheld him. He rubbed his eyes once again just to make sure he wasn't hallucinating from lack of sleep, it had happened before. He remembered the time in which he thought he saw a green unicorn with Nick Fury's head in his shower. Of course that account was from a mix of both over tiredness and alcohol.

Loki was sitting onto of a counter clutched in one of his hands was a martini glass full with some sort of yellow liquid and the other was clutched onto a box of Thor's pop tarts. That wasn't the part of the scene that caught both Tony's attention and displeasure. It was the surroundings. Every corner of the room was covered with crumbs, orange and banana peels, and apple cores, cardboard and paper that were ripped into extremely small pieces. It was almost like Loki took the time to carefully rip every piece of cardboard or paper into the smallest form it could be torn into by hand. The pieces covered every corner of the kitchen like a fresh blanket of snow. The peels and cores sat on top of the pieces, placed randomly.

At this time Loki decided to speak, a grin spread across his features as he spoke. "I do like this midgardian fruit of yours. Can you purchase more? I do believe we are out."

Tony lunged for Loki, furious with the state of the room but Loki seemed to pick the spot he was sitting strategically. Tony had to cross the paper and fruit covered ground first and his maddened fit of anger he didn't do much for thinking. One step into his charge at Loki, he stepped onto a slippery yellow object. He landed hard on the ground; he managed to dampen the impact by using his arms to stop the fall. It half worked, it stopped the severity of the fall but both of his hands slipped on a either a banana or orange peel. Tony didn't care enough to look. He was face first in mess of the ground.

He wasn't that happy, he could hear the cackles of Loki growing fainter with distance. He found it even more humiliating that he slipped on a banana peel; it was a cliché by itself even though Loki probably didn't even know what a banana was. He was still face down on the kitchen floor as he began to speak.

"Jarvis. Delete the last few minutes from the security cameras."


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: Almost two weeks from the last update. I'm soory about that guys, i've just been busy. **

**Since the last update I'm seen Captain America, Iron Man and Iron Man 2 all for the first time and Avengers for the second. So hopefully I'm a bit more in-character now. **

**This chapter is another not-at-all-serious one. The next chapter will most likely be a more serious, plot building one. This chapter is a add-on to the last and mostly rambling that had been mostly caused by having inspiration at 1am. **

**And of course, leaving reviews may make it so future chapters come you faster. ^^**

_**Disclaimer: I do not own The Avengers.**_

* * *

Thor was walking through the halls, going toward the stairs. There was a midgardian traveling device that Tony had called an elevator but one trip on the device was enough for Thor. His mind was filled with the thought of eating a wonderfully sweet breakfast object called a pop tart. Thor enjoyed popped tarts immensely ever since the first time he encountered them during his previous banishment to midgard.

Thor's vision was obscured by his thoughts and from just waking up. It was quite early also; Thor made it a habit of sleeping as long as possible when he didn't have anything duties to complete. Today was different; he was going to try again with his brother.

Thor knew that his brother was a light sleeper, with fondness he remembered their younger days in which Thor would wake up only to see Loki standing on his balcony. Loki would use the same excuse all the time that he couldn't sleep. After that Thor would join Loki in the world of the awakened almost automatically, filling the remainder of the night or morning of talk and jesting. Some of the guards of the palace joked that Loki was the only one able to awaken the Prince from his bed. A small smile filled with longing crossed Thor's face as soon as the memory resurfaced. He wished that the child Loki still existed; that Loki still depended and needed Thor.

The depressing thoughts started to multiply in Thor's head. What if Loki couldn't be saved? What if his Loki didn't exist anymore? What if… Loki didn't want to be saved? Thor attempted to force the negative thoughts from his mind with a little beam of hope. He could do it, he was his brother and their bond could never be severed. Thor started thinking about different ways to approach his brother at this point and schemes in which he could bring back the old Loki with. His mind was far from watching where he stepped.

His right foot hit something much less firm than the floor he was on previously. A grunt came from below Thor's foot. He looked the source of the noise and he withdrew his foot quickly only to be met by an angry green glaze. His foot was swatted away with a forceful but thin hand. "You pompous fool! Watch where you step." Thor was staring into the angry eyes of a certain green eyed villain. The villain was seated on the ground, leaning on a wall. Loki's attention faded from Thor quickly, he settled to rubbing sleep from his eyes.

"I apologize, brot-"

"Do. Not. Call. Me. That." Loki hissed out every word with force and menace.

"-ther. Did you sleep here?" Thor gestured to the hall with a heavy hand.

"Of course not. I slept in Starks rooms for part of the night." Thor looked at Loki with a twinge of disbelief as a mischievous grin started to cover Loki's face.

"What did you do?" Thor asked, putting the slightest amount of force in his tone.

"He wasn't in for most of the night Thor, I just took use of his bed."

"You have your own room Loki."

"Really Thor? I did not know of that, Starks introduction package did not include such matters." Loki's tone was mocking and his smile had not faded. To someone who didn't know Loki well at they would say that Loki was imply happy; knowing Loki, Thor knew that wasn't the case. Loki's eyes had the slightest twinkle to them and his smile resembled a sneer. Those telltale signs often lead Thor and his companions at the time through multiple humiliating events that lacked benefit but entertained Loki.

"What did you do?" Thor was tired of his brothers games at this point, his words were harsh and applied with force much like the time before the invasion of midgard in which Thor had tried to convince Loki to return.

Loki revealed nothing, his smile just grew bigger. "The main event will begin at a later time." The green eyed demi-god started to stand up in order to look eye to eye at Thor. "But there are always the side events." Loki gave a cackled as he turned his back toward Thor. He was moving toward the stairs. Thor's popped tarts were forgotten as he started to move through the hall. He knew Steve's room was somewhere on a nearby floor, perhaps he would need assistance in stopping whatever Loki planned for today's entertainment.

* * *

Steve had awakened as early as always. It was a habit of his, he may have had a 70 year nap but he continued his original sleeping habits that he had before. He may not have not been in the middle of a battle field at the current time but threats could arise in just a moment. A good soldier was to always be on standby.

He was preparing to go to the gym. Tony had one built in the lower basement when he had heard of his new houseguest. Steve was grateful for that but having one in the tower had took away one of his excuses to go outside into the world. Of course he could leave anytime but it was most often the case that he didn't want to or because he had no reason to. His naivety of the 21st century was easy to see and fairly easy to take advantage of. To be honest, Steve was scared of it. It was nothing like his time and it just made him miss the past even more. Such thoughts brought on much more thoughts, all related to the past. The names and faces that he remembered as clear as day caused Steve to stop in place. His eyes strayed to a pair of old picture frames in which S.H.I.E.L.D was able to acquire. Two faces stared up at him, one of a young adult man. The man's shoulders were rigid and his face was void of emotion. A soldier but one that Steve knew very well.

His eyes strayed to the second picture. A girl was on it, with a slight smile on her face. Steve's eyes were fixated on both of the pictures as his door was flung open.

"Captain! I believe my brother is planning something!" Thor burst into the room and he spoke in his usual loud and demanding tone.

Steve's eyes widened then narrowed. "Let me get my shield, we'll take him down together."

Thor started speaking again. "No that is not needed; I do not believe his plan is to attack your planet. I believe his goal is mischief."

Steve started to question Thor. "Mischief?"

"Yes my brother thrives on it. His title is God of mischief and lies."

"Do you believe that his mischief will bring destruction and deaths as his attack did?"

"No, he is without his magic and he had no contact outside of the tower so it will probably be created by experimenting with the many objects in the tower of Stark."

Steve took a few seconds to think and then spoke. "Should we find him and stop this?"

"I do not believe we can, Loki has probably implemented his wrongdoing. I presume he is just waiting for someone to walk into it." Thor's voice boomed in the room; it lacked panic and/or worry, he was used to Loki's shenanigans. On the other hand, Steve was not. His mind was racing, attempting to think of a way to stop the green eyed god.

"We need to find him and make him tell us what he did. There are lots of dangerous items in the tower and if he learns how to use them it could be catastrophic." Steve wouldn't be surprised if Loki wasn't as technology stunted as him or Thor, he knew already that Loki was crafty, insane and resourceful.

Thor paused before saying, "I doubt we'll be able to get answers from him and if we do they would probably be nothing more than the lies in which he is known for."

"We need to try."

* * *

Thor had his hammer clasped in his arm as he moved through the hall slowly and carefully. It wasn't anything new though, Thor carried around his hammer constantly much like a small midgardian child with a blankie. What was different though, was that the man beside him was also armed. Steve wasn't in costume but he had a red, white and blue shield clasped in his hand. They crept down the hall; their destination was the kitchen because Thor assumed that Loki was planning to partake in trying popped tarts and other midgardian forms of substance as Thor recommended to him previously.

Steve doubted it though but he didn't tell Thor that, he didn't need to see the big blondes kicked puppy expression. With more though, Steve assumed that out of the places Loki had access to; the kitchen would give him the most tools to wreak havoc on Tony's house. Steve kept creeping down the hall slowly with Thor beside him; one thing was constant during the whole trip. Nothing seemed amiss or wrong at all.

Some may even say that the rooms and hallways were flaw-less. This made Steve's paranoia even worst. Both Thor and Steve took the stairs rather than the elevator. They walked at a brisk pace, not tiring in the slightest even though they had to move down multiple floors of stairs. At last they reached the bottom to the seemingly never ending staircase. Both of them were fine by the end of it but looks of dread crossed their faces as they prepared to be met by chaos. Steve reached for the door that would lead the both of them into the kitchen.

His imagination brought thoughts of food covering the walls, the large center table on fire and appliances and cupboards flipped over and ripped from the wall. The door opened and Steve gave a gasp.

The kitchen was completely intact, nothing was on fire or broken. The only change from the night before was a pair of robots moving around on the tile. One seemed to be vacuuming, another seemed to be mopping.

Thor reacted rather negatively to the robots, to put it simply.

"Invaders! Your presence is not welcome!" Thor lunged at the mopping robot, pushing it over. It flipped over onto its back, looking much like a stuck turtle. Thor seemed quite pleased with the uprooted robot until its mopping function kicked in. It squirted water from a small pipe; either by chance or the possibility that Tony installed his robots with attitude, the small stream of water hit Thor directly between the eyes.

Thor seemed to think that the small metal beast spat in his face and Thor took it as an insult. Steve watched from a distance as Thor started to get more furious and louder by the second.

"I am the crown prince of Asgard! How dare you spit in my face!" Thor rushed the small robot and started beating it repeatedly with Mjolnir. Multiple screws, springs and wire fell from the squished corpse of the machine. A large pool of water dripped from it, spreading over the smooth tile of the kitchen.

Even though the mopping robot was already smashed to bits, Thor continued with his savage beating of the flat corpse of the robot. Steve just watched from the door frame, not quite wanting to get in Thor's way. The demi-god was red faced and was reduced to crude grunts of anger rather than words.

An exasperated sigh came from the connected living room. "You bumbling fool, why must you make so much noise?" Loki gracefully walked into the kitchen. Steve was surprised to see how normal Loki looked for once. His face lacked the insane smile and he wore no leather. In the place of his armor was a very familiar Black Sabbath T-shirt and jeans. In place of crazy smile he had a small frown on his face.

He kept moving into the room at a walk. He stopped in front of a large pantry and opened the door without even acknowledging the other people in the room. At this time, Steve left, he assumed that the worst was going to happen. Loki seemed to stand there pondering what one of the multiple foods he should take, while Thor still beat the remains of the robot. A pale hand reached into the panty withdrawing with a small blue box. Loki continued pondering the box, his green eyes scanning over the writing covering the box.

Thor moved onto repeatedly hitting the second robot after it bumped into his leg. Loki read through the writing on the box quickly and he stopped on the side showing a bright coloured picture of a white and beige rectangular object covered with splotches of other bright colours. The expression on his face was of mild curiosity. He was still staring at the box as he moved through the kitchen; his goal was the crook of the counter connected to the appliances. Thor was still beating the second robot into oblivion as Loki passed by, neither of them acknowledged each other. Thor was still focused on the robot and Loki had eyes only for the blue box.

It was quite a shame when Loki went through the danger zone he wasn't paying attention. There were pieces of robots and water covering the floor. The force of Mjolnir sent it all over the room. The robot innards were not the biggest threat though, due to the floor being tile it was quite slippery when wet. His Asgardian shoes held next to no traction on the floor as he when through a particularly wet patch of flooring. His feet slipped under him and he lost his graceful edge. He fell backwards and his back on the damp ground. As he make contact with the floor and gasp escaped from his mouth. He lain on the floor for a few seconds looking dazed from the fall, the small blue box of pop tarts still clutched in his hand.

Loki's fall seemed have a spell like affect over Thor. He stopped his smashing of the flat robots and rushed to his brother's side.

"Brot-"

"Don't call me that." Loki managed to mumble out as he started to sit up.

"-ther. Are you alright? Are you hurt? Did you break anything? Are you-"

Loki cut Thor off, "I'm fine, so stop that nonsense. I don't need someone like you fretting over me." Loki hissed the words out as he stood up from the ground and began brushing imaginary dirt off his clothes. Thor didn't flinch at Loki's words, instead he was quiet. He put a reassuring hand upon Loki's shoulder only for it to be shaken off. "I don't need your pity," Loki said as he stalked off, leaving the box of pop tarts behind.

* * *

Steve had left the kitchen as soon as Loki entered, it was early and he didn't really feel like getting between another confrontation between the twosome. Between Loki's attempted takeover of Earth and him moving into the tower, Steve noted that every time Thor and Loki ended up together, chaos would reign. Steve had retreated into the connected living room, pushing back thoughts of exercising and eating. His mind was still on Thor's warning from earlier. If Loki was planning on doing something it was in every responsible person's best interest to be ready. Of course in the occupants in the tower, Steve was the only responsible one. He sighed as that thought can to mind along with a mental picture of Thor beating one of Tony's particularly useful experiments beyond repair and Tony drinking himself silly. Steve remembered when he first came to Stark tower that he was startled by the robots that were found creeping around the house, completing various jobs but he did not beat any to death.

He sighed as he settled down a leather sofa. He could still hear Thor beating the small robot into submission, for now it seemed that all was well. Steve settled into the couch, enjoying the semi quiet. That was disturbed as Steve heard a crash. It was followed by Thor stopping his smashing and saying something that Steve couldn't decipher. After that he listened to a few angry words from Loki and Steve watched as the demi guard stormed from the kitchen and into the living room. Loki paid no attention to Steve as he moved to the other side of the room. Loki sat on an arm chair and picked up a book that lay beside the chair on a side table. From a distance Steve could identify the book's title was made up of several long words that Steve didn't know the meaning behind.

Loki hadn't even opened his book as Thor erupted into the room looking much like a lost puppy. In his hands he clasped a slightly mangled box of pop tarts.

"Brot-"

"What did I say before?"

"-ther, didn't you want to partake in the eating of popped tarts?" Thor spoke, his full attention directed to Loki.

"No, I do not want any of your sugary pastries _Thor_ and I would appreciate if you ceased your continuation in harassing me," Loki said directing his green eyes onto Thor. His eyes lacked his usual glint of insanity, instead they glimmered with annoyance. Without even waiting for Thor's answer he opened the book and focused his attention on it.

Thor took a seat near Loki and stared at him intensely, as if he was trying to mentally project his thoughts into Loki's head. Loki ignored him fully and Steve was surprised by that. If Thor was staring at him like that he didn't think he would be able to hold up for all that long. The green eyed villain seemed to have his full attention directed on the book and he acted as if he was the only one in the room. Thor didn't seem to let up in his staring so after many minutes passed Loki met his eyes again. Loki arched one of his eyebrows and gave Thor a disinterested look. Thor was triumphant with his progress and multiple words spilled out of his mouth; all of it nonsense. Loki just rolled his eyes and returned his full attention on his book.

Peace lasted for around 10 minutes more and then the next round of chaos began. It started with a semi loud voice with a British ascent talking from the walls. The sudden words caused both Asgardians to jump. "Greetings Mr. Odinson, I have a message directed to you from Mr. Stark. He wonders why his clothing has been removed from his room along with everything else. He also wishes to know where you found the mouse traps. I've rephrased his words as most of the ones he used were socially unacceptable."

At the end of Jarvis's words, a grin was spreading across Loki's face. "Thank you Jarvis, please inform Stark that I found the crude migardian traps in the cleaning cupboard along around the house with corpses of small midgardian animals."

By this time Thor was startled. "Corpses? Friend Stark, my brot-"

"Don't call me that."

"-ther must be jesting. I don't believe you would kill fellow midgardians."

After a few moments of pause, Jarvis responded. "Mr. Odinson-"

"I would prefer if you called me Loki."

"Very well Mr. Loki, Mr. Stark is threating your wellbeing if you do not reveal the location of Mr. Stark's clothing and/or his bed sheets."

Loki gave a cackle as he responded, his smile extending from being small to using his entire face. "Please inform Stark that his items are all around the house but if he wishes to start his hunt he should take a pair of under garments from the balcony first. Also mention, to him that some of the guests in his tower do frown upon those who sleep unclothed. "


	5. Chapter 5

**Huh, I managed to get this chapter done before my self given deadline and only in one week! I've got 60 people with me on their alerts and I can't descibe how happy that makes me! you guys are awesome. ^^**

**This chapter starts off more of a recap of the last one instead in Tony's point of view but as it goes farther on there is a lot of Loki whump and stuff that actually brings the plot forward. **

**And of course, leaving reviews may make me more inclined to release chapters faster. ^^**

**_Disclaimer: I do not own The Avengers. _**

* * *

To put it simply, Tony was more than mad. He was furious.

The events of the night were just the icing on the cake. He had the image of the cackling and leaving Loki marred permanently in his brain. The anger he felt at the green eyed god of mischief stopped him from thinking of anything else.

The starting event of the night started with him sprawled out on the floor, surrounded by various random items that were classed as nothing more than waste. He had lain there for maybe five minutes, enough time for a few various cleaning robots to arrive at the scene. He gotten up a demanded for a cup of highly caffeinated coffee topped off with alcohol from Jarvis who obeyed and sent the order to the coffee machine. After that he moved into a more comfortable position, he retreated into the large living room and onto a rather comfortable looking lounger.

He sipped the alcoholic coffee and started to calm down. The caffeine didn't eliminate Tony's tired mind and after a very brief time the liquid lost its effect. At that time he made the decision to go to his room.

Nothing eventful had happened during the walk to the elevator much to Tony's satisfaction. He listened to the pleasant quiet of the elevator, it was almost soothing. He walked down the hall at a slow half asleep pace. He arrived at his room quickly due to the fact that he took a room close to the elevator. He settled his hand on the cool metal doorknob of his room and entered. The room was dark, the only light was the light from outside buildings strong enough to get in through the curtains but he could still see the silhouette of a large king sized bed. Without much thought Tony slipped off his clothes and crawled under thick quilt of his bed.

His eyes closed automatically but he felt movement beside him. He wasn't alarmed in the slightest, he was used to company. His sleep addled mind along with habit caused him to not at all question how he bedded someone when the day mostly was spent in his tower and S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters. His hands fell heavy on the body next to him; he drew the other close to him, only opening his eyes to look into two very bright green eyes.

"Tut, tut, Stark. That's a little too forward. What would Thor say?" The demi-god's face made a full effort to transform into a full grin; his white teeth glinted in the dim light. Tony all but flew out of the bed. He fell out of the bed with a crash. Many curses erupted from his mouth. Loki felt it was wise not to linger at the scene of the crime, with a few bounding leaps along with many barks of laugher he left the room. It was good he left quickly, some form of object hit the wall forcefully where Loki's head once was.

"Jarvis! How did he get in?!" Tony yelled.

The disembodied voice answered coolly, "He used the door."

"Damn it Jarvis! That's not what I meant. Remember the additionally security I added in my room?"

"Shield's modification in the tower retendered it askew."

That reduced to Tony cursing more; this time around it was more about a one eyed man rather than about a green eyed god.

* * *

Tony managed to eventually get to asleep but Loki was able to get in once again. Keeping a careful eye on the awkwardly positioned man on the large bed he got to work. Loki crept around the room, barely making a sound due to his past experiences of sneaking around. With quick hands he raided Tony's wardrobe, gently putting the piles of attire on the ground. When he was sure he had removed every piece of clothing from Tony's containers, Loki set his attention on the lump on the bed.

Tony already kicked off the large and heavy quilt sometime during the night but the white sheets still remained on and under his body. Loki paused as he pondered how he would get them off him, such things as sheets could still be used as apparel. Loki was thinking of all the possible scenarios that could happen. He decided on the course of action he would take as he left the sleeping Tony with his sheets. He then gathered up the mass of clothing, balancing them with ease. Loki may have been seen as a weakling compared to Thor and other Asgardians but he was by far stronger than any human.

He moved down the hall, placing pieces of Tony's clothing in random nooks and crannies. Some of the clothing was hidden better than others. The pile of clothing decreased dramatically as Loki continued hiding the garments. The pile kept shrinking until it turned into only one piece of clothing. Loki recognized it as a piece of attire that the mortal was fond of by his continued use of. It was a black shirt that was labelled with the words, "Black Sabbath." The words inscribed on the shirt meant nothing to Loki but he decided to take it as a trophy along with a pair of hardy midgardian pants. He stored his leather armor away in a storage room in the hallway and changed into the midgardian apparel.

He felt naked in the thin clothing but he endured it. It was strange, both the shirt and pants fit loosely on his frame. It was quite different than the tight leather and heavy armor. He kept the midgardian clothing on because his original purpose of placing them on his body, to gloat. The thought of Tony's face when he realized all of his apparel was gone and that enemy captured his preferential tunic made a small smile cross the demi-god's face.

Thinking of Tony made Loki remember the sheets in which he had yet to get rid of. He was on his way to Tony's room. He walked in and stopped, his eyes scanning the bed. Tony hadn't moved from the spot in which Loki left him. Loki couldn't find any opening to get at the sheet so he decided to do a Thor and try and steal the sheet without planning or thinking. Loki's hand started pulling at the sheet; they lost their hold on the bed with ease. The only problem that the sheets were taking Tony with them.

Continuing with his previous decision, with one fluent yank the sheets went under Tony and off the bed. The sleeping Tony didn't even react other than a particularly heavy intake of air. Loki smiled and started to grab the ones Tony was tangling in. It took time; Loki was being more careful with the second sheet but Loki got it off Tony. As the sheet went off, Loki scowled with distaste as he saw Tony sleeping in the buff. It wasn't the most pleasing sight and Loki dragged the sheets away from the room, closing the door with a click.

* * *

Tony awoke only to notice how cold he was. He shivered as he began to sit up. From that point he quickly noticed the lack of both sheets and blankets. It was weird but Tony had awoken into much weirder situations before. And this event didn't even make it into the top 50's. With a sigh he stood up and walked over to his dresser. He was even more puzzled as he noticed that there were no clothes in sight. The drawer was completely empty. He went to try another but the result was exactly the same. Nothing. Tony moved over to his closet, there was nothing still. He continued his frenzied search through the room but he couldn't find any sort of attire; he couldn't even find a blanket or even a curtain to cover himself up.

He decided to take his search to his private bathroom. As he walked in he let his hand hit the light switch. That wasn't a very good idea to walk in first though, mouse traps littered the floor. They slammed shut on Tony's bare toes as he stepped. He gave a yelp of pain as he jumped, attempting to lose the mouse traps from his toes. The movement of course got him to hit more and he continued his awkward and painful dance. It only stopped went he jumped onto the closed seat of the toilet.

From that point he scouted a clear path to escape the bathroom. He followed through and left quickly without much more incident but at this point, Tony was beyond angry. He could quite easily guess who was a fault for such an incident and he wanted nothing more than to wring the skinny, pale bastard's neck.

"Jarvis!" Tony was yelling angrily. "Tell that bastard of a villain to tell me where my fucking clothing is and where my fucking bedding is or I'll blast his skinny ass back to Ass-gard. Also ask him where he got the fucking mouse traps."

* * *

Tony grabbed the pair of boxers that Loki told him the location of and he started moving through the hall on a warpath. On his way he managed to find one sock, a wife beater and a T-shirt. He put on the one sock and the T-shirt but he left the wife beater in the hall. Tony's face was red and he looked absolutely furious but it was hard to take someone seriously when they were wearing iron man boxers and a single sock.

Jarvis told him where the green eyed trickster was, so all Tony had yet to do was getting there. During the walk Tony's anger didn't cool in the slightest. The thought that occupied his mind at the current time was blasting Loki repeatedly with one of his Iron Man blasters. That thought only lasted him a few seconds before he moved onto the next scenario; all of them which came to mind were violent.

He took the elevator down and stormed down the hall and into the kitchen area. No one was there but Tony wasn't the least bit surprised, Jarvis had said that the pair of resident gods and the super soldier were in the living room. The kitchen looked flawless but it brought up thoughts of the previous night and Loki's first act of mischief. The new memories didn't help Tony's mood in the slightest, some may even say it drove him even more off the edge.

He entered into the living room with his footsteps heavy with anger and his face still red with rage. His furiousness increased by tenfold as he met the smug smile covering a certain green eyed demi-god's face. Tony ignored the sympathetic glances from the pair of blonde headed men and continued glaring.

"What is your fucking problem?! You're living in my house and I could just as well hand you over back to Fury and you could stay in your glass cage once again if you would prefer." Tony spat out every single word out with venom.

"You're so easy to read Stark," Loki's smile didn't fade in the slightest. "You wouldn't send me back to your leader, all because the excuse you would have to use would insult your pride."

"I could lie. I thought the so called god of lies would be able to figure that out," Tony answered.

"Do you really think Thor would be able to keep a secret? Since my many years in presence of him he fumbled over lies and ruined many a surprise with a loose tongue." Loki gestured to the sitting pair of blondes that were listening in on the conversation.

"English please," Tony mocked Loki.

"And I doubt your model soldier would be able to be deceitful either, especially to the one in which he takes orders from." Loki smirked and ignored Tony's previous statement.

Tony could feel himself get more and more irritated by the demi god, he didn't respond to the Asgardian's flowing words. Loki continued, enjoying gloating over his victory. "Say, isn't it a little vain to be wearing undergarments imprinted with your alternate face, Iron Man?" Loki's grin was smug and his words were mocking.

At this point Tony had enough. His anger from the night, morning and current time boiled over and Tony only though of strangling the skinny bastard with his own bare hands. Of course Tony had enough self-control not to do it, years of dealing with politicians and reporters had made it so he was used to the feeling. Instead of partaking in physical violence, Tony put all the force of his anger in his words. "SHUT UP." He wasn't screaming but the tone told everyone in the room of his mood. After a few moments he added in one more word, spoken with just as much force. "LOKI."

As soon as Tony said Loki's name the green eyed god fell to the ground as if he had been struck, the smug grin gone as his face in an instant. His body had tensed completely and his hands seemed to move toward his throat. Tony didn't see what was happening until Loki's hands found a hold on the black collar.

The black collar didn't quite resemble a collar at this point, it was losing its original shape and pieces of it broke off into long strands that could be compared in appearance with outstretched, moving, black tree branches. One of the tags on the collar was glimmering a faint green. The strands were constantly in movement, they slithered along Loki's skin never leaving the touch of his flesh. Each strand looked like a moving serpent.

Loki's hands were clawing at the black strands but he didn't stop the movement nor did he even slow it down. Every time one of his fingers came in contact with the black tendril, small green sparks seemed fly from the area of contact and Loki's thin fingers would flinch away from the collar for a second before returning to their futile mission. The strands crawled up Loki's neck, all of them stopping at his chin and they began curling around his neck. At this point Loki's throat was covered with many obsidian threads, all smaller than the width of a fingertip, except for one. The original thick black collar seemed to settle on his neck once again, every individual strand was connected to it. Loki may have been stiffing the whimpers before but when all of the black stands started to glow a faded green they hummed from his throat but they were quickly silenced as the black started to tighten around his neck.

Steve and Tony didn't know what was happening in the slightest. Both of them assumed that Loki was faking the scene playing before them; that he was trying to lower their guards in order to introduce another fit of mischief. Unlike the others, Thor knew what it was and how it was happening. Thor knew it was the will of the All-father and that it wasn't his place to intervene, he watched Loki with the slightest bit of guilt in his eyes.

At this point, Loki's eyes filled with panic, the hesitance he had with getting assaulted with green sparks was gone. His hands were gripping the collar with as much force as he could muster.

* * *

Loki couldn't describe the feeling. The collar crawled along his neck; each movement caused the black strands to grow tighter. Loki felt completely helpless; each touch brought a shock of his own magic into his fingers that the collar turned against him. Every touch burnt his fingers but he couldn't accept defeat. He couldn't accept his weakness. He couldn't resign to his fate.

He was shamed that his enemies were watching him as he was humbled by the All-fathers magic. The collar tightened around his neck to the point of cutting off his air. He gave a laboured breath of air as the collar tightened even more. It didn't hurt much at all, it just made Loki lightheaded. As soon as that thought came to mind the collar responded. Sparks of green powered it to start heating up.

In a mere few seconds it continued tightening but was much worse. Loki could feel the heat scorch his skin; even the areas not touching black strands were affected as green flames rose from the tendrils. Loki could hear yelling in the back ground but his mind was wiped clean by the increasing pain. His actions changed to revolve around his desire to rid himself of the pain. His hands moved from the main section of the collar and instead started to attempt to pull the stands off his flesh. The strands held onto his skin much like leeches and even though Loki ripped them off they returned to their former spot with ease. Loki was beyond rational thinking at this point and he continued his ineffective task.

The flame's licked his neck and the strands dug into his neck scorching his skin. The collar stopped tightening but instead he could feel the scalding strands traveling down his back. The proud god was temporally broken down with the intense pain the slightest bit of water dripped from his eyes. His body heaved with the effort of breathing and his hands clawed at his neck reactively. He was oblivious to the panicked voices sounding loudly beside him. He could feel his body giving up in defeat. His movements were slow and half hearted. Then suddenly the pressure on his throat was gone. The searing pain ended with a touch but Loki made no movement to get up or even acknowledge his savor. He just continued lying limp on the floor, looking very much like a broken ragdoll.

* * *

"Are those flames?!"

"They aren't giving off smoke!"

"I think Loki's collar is making them."

"No shit Sherlock!"

"Tony you need to calm down!"

"Shit, shit, shit! How are we going to put them out?"

Tony was getting worked up as soon as he saw the flames and realized Loki wasn't faking. He couldn't get the picture of the pain on Loki's face as soon as the collar started to choke him out of his head. It was wrong to feel bad for a villain who leveled New York City and killed a ridiculous amount of people in a few days but after the flames he didn't think he was the only one feeling pity for the god. He made no motion to hide his panic; his conversation with Steve proved that.

Tony was pacing around the room trying to think of a possible way to stop the progress of Loki's collar but nothing came up. Steve was doing the same, except his full attention was on the demi god. Tony's eyes moved to Thor but he was puzzled by the usually happy blonde's expression. It was almost the Asgardian looked sad and guilty at the same time.

"Thor!" Tony yelled at the large blonde man. "Why is he doing this?"

Thor answered after a long pause. "Because you wished it."

At Thor's word's Tony was made speechless. "What do you mean?"

Thor answered back without even a falter in his tone, "You wanted him to feel repentance for his actions against you."

Tony was made speechless once again, "So you mean… The collar responded to me?"

"Yes, the binding tablet you placed upon it earlier yesterday had bound Loki to you."

Tony knew that from listening to the debriefing but he didn't quite understand it. He was a man of science not one of magic and torture. Steve's voice broke Tony from his thoughts, "Guys! He is now starting to struggle with his breathing! I recommend that you guys stop your chat and fix this!"

"We need to stop it. How do we do it Thor!" Tony was serious for once; his face and tone lacked the usually present sarcastic note.

"You, friend Stark can only stop it. Not I, because you triggered the collar."

"Whatever! This is not the time for nitpicking!"

"Nitpicking? Fiend Stark I do not-"

"Thor!" Tony snapped.

Thor's face turned serious as he sensed Tony's mood, "You must touch the collar and it will recede."

Not even giving Thor a response, Tony rushed over to the struggling Loki. He could see why Steve was concerned, the god's sides were heaving with effort just to get a breath in. The black strands were digging into his neck and the fire was alit all-over his body from the tendrils moving along his body.

Tony's hand touched one of the branched off black strands but it had no affect so he moved his hand to the thick collar in which the strand connected. His hand just brushed the collar and the strands seemed to recede back into the obsidian collar.

Tony almost expected for Loki to jump and hiss back an angry retort directed toward Tony then stalk away for more plotting. That didn't happen. The proud god seemed let his hands lose their grip on the collar and hit the ground limply. The demi-god didn't even look up at Tony; Loki just let his head hang limply at his side. His eyes glimmered with resignation.


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note: I was planning to release this chapter yesterday but I just had no muse to finish it yesterday. Sorry guys but at least I could get it out today. **

**This chapter is mostly just writing about the aftermath of the last chapter and some fluff. Its not much for action or humor but it is what it is. Hopefully the next chapter turns out a bit more exciting. **

**I thank you guys for all of the Alerts, Favorites and Reviews. You guys are amazing, each one of those makes me feel really good. Its not often I get complemented on my stories. **

******And of course, leaving reviews may make me more inspired to finish chapters faster. ^^**

**_Disclaimer: I do not own The Avengers. _**

* * *

A few minutes after the collar was stopped, Loki passed out into unconscious. It mattered not to the trio of hero's, ever since Loki stopped thrashing around on the ground they engaged in loud conversation.

"What was that Thor!?" Tony spoke loudly and angrily.

"That was the precautions in which the All-father instated to help us control Loki's behavior," Thor answered back without the slightest change in his tone as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

"That was for control? Thor, he was in immense, inhumane pain!" Tony was still flustered from seeing the proud, crazed demi-god thrashing around the floor in agony. Loki was the enemy, heros didn't give villains given sympathy but after seeing that Tony wouldn't be able to un-give it.

"We are gods Stark, we are able to take considerable amounts of pain," Thor was in the process of trying to defend Odin's choices from Tony scathing tone.

"I don't care, he got hulk smashed into a marble floor in which he broke through but yet he still able to mock us. Look at his state now Thor! He is down on the ground not moving!" Tony's temper grew once again, making him raise his voice louder and louder. He didn't care for the green eyed demi-god in the slightest but after seeing the expression on his face as the collar took over, he did feel sympathy.

"My brother did everything to deserve that friend Stark."

"No one deserves to be in intense pain! There are rules written about torture on Earth!"

The argument continued loudly but Steve didn't care much for listening to it. As soon as Tony "turned off" the collar he rushed to Loki's side. Loki's eyes were only open for a few seconds after the end of the attack. His eyes rolled back quickly after and his body went limp.

Steve, at this time felt as if it was now safe to look closely at Loki. His eyes settled to the most affected area of the collar, his neck. What Steve saw made him gasp aloud.

A gruesome design of red stripes covered Loki's neck. They were coloured an angry red and contrasted on his pale skin. The severity of the burning was different on each individual burn with the most severe closest to the collar. Steve's thoughts returned back to mention of the second black collar and he was disgusted. Odin was supposed to be Loki's fath-adopted father; he remembered on how touchy Loki was about the subject. How could any father do this to their kid, adopted or otherwise?

Steve let his voice rise loudly above both Tony's and Thor's discussion; it took on his captain voice, leaving no room for argument. "Stop bickering and look around." Steve gestured to the fallen demi-god sprawled out on the ground. His voice took on a less harsh tone as he got their attention. "Tony I'm going to take him to his assigned room but I need the directions to it."

Tony replied quickly, "The one meant for him is on Thor's floor, just two rooms away from Thor's room is prepared for him but I don't think a room full of bugs, camera's and an electric fence around the balcony isn't the best for him right now."

Steve spoke again, "What room would be good for him then?"

"Throw him in one of the nicer guest rooms on the fourth floor," Steve gave a nod as he approached the demi-god again. He hesitated for a second, stopping in front of the defenseless god passed out on the floor. If he wasn't out, he would probably lash out angrily if he knew the ones who he had dubbed as enemies showed compassion to him. After that brief moment he picked up the limp body from the ground, careful not to excessively brush his burns. It was done easily due to Steve's super human strength and it did help that the god felt lighter than Steve would have thought.

It was strange to see the villain defenseless; it didn't feel right at all. The demi-god was meant to give them venomous looks and mess with their minds by using twisted words. He wasn't meant to be passed out or even be curled up in agonizing pain. He was a villain and nothing more so he was always meant to be seen as a cold murderer… right? Steve's thoughts were confusing as he walked through the halls with the unconscious demi-god draped in his arms.

He took the elevator mostly due to the fact of he wanted to get Loki to the room as soon as possible. Most days he would just use the stairs because he preferred it to Tony's horribly fancy elevator and because stairs were more familiar to him. Plus he didn't get tired easily so he could easily go up Tony's multiple flights of stairs without even a change in his breathing. He walked into the steel elevator without any complaint, unlike Thor he was didn't find it to be a metal box of moving death.

The elevator sped up the process to get Loki somewhere where he could time out his unconscious state peacefully. It only took a few minutes of cheesy elevator music until he reached his designated floor. Steve walked to one of the rooms closest to the elevator and opened the door without the slightest of problems. He placed the unconscious Loki onto the bed, making sure he put the dark haired demi-god into a comfortable looking position. For good measure, Steve also went to shut the curtains but place one of the blankets over the unconscious demo-god.

He moved to the door slowly, he didn't really want to leave the unconscious demi-god alone after seeing how venerable he was. Steve finally decided not to stay; all because he knew when Loki awoke he wouldn't appreciate any of the Avengers hovering over him or even being visually worried by his condition. Steve could already image Loki spitting venomous words at them and glaring at them with both cold and angry eyes.

* * *

Loki hurt; he could feel the after effects of the attack. His eyes slid open but he didn't do much to move except to slide a hand to the most irritated area. He let his fingers make contact with his neck and he pulled them back quickly. The contact just irritated the burns more even when his hands were frigid from his jotun heritage. Even with the short time of contact he could feel the increased heat and feverish feel from his seared skin.

Seeing in no point of lying in the bed any longer he sat up, his burns protesting every movement. His calm green eyes moved to the midgardian time keeper placed on the opposite wall, it was later than Loki originally thought. _By this time my burns should have been replaced with mended skin… _He was thinking about the state of his wounds. He assumed the worst about them, that the collar probably would restrict his healing to an almost human level. The thought of being even similar to a mortal infuriated him.

He sighed as he moved around the room, inspecting his surroundings. The Avengers placed him in a semi-small area furnished with a large bed, a night table, a large window and two doorways. It wasn't something that he expected to be placed in, a thought of a prison with barred windows and a small bed that was bolted to the floor came to mind.

Loki moved cautiously through the room, much as if he expected for there to be traps placed at every corner. He moved to one of the doorways, it revealed a bathroom fully furnished with appliances that midgardians often associated with cleansing. It looked like it wasn't compromised in a visible way and because of that, Loki felt slightly at ease. He was still cautious though. He stopped in front of the large mirror, only to frown at the complicated red stripes covering his whole neck. The Black Sabbath shirt he had stolen from Tony showed no damage from the flames so this made Loki convinced that the flames were enchanted in such a way only to damage him rather than his surroundings.

His green eyes scanned the shower with curiosity. He had used a variation of the cleansing box during his last trip to midgard. He remembered learning of its function from the archer's mind. He decided on freshening himself up with the contraption. He removed the stolen midgardian clothes from his body as he moved into the rectangular box. His hands fiddled with the dial, he turned it on so the dial was in the middle and then he turned on the overhead sprinkler. He was showered with a burst of luke-warm water. It felt nice but his hands moved again to turn the dial all the way to the part marked with a "C."

The water turned ice cold and Loki's burns were temporally soothed. A careless thought about Asgard came to his mind. _The baths at Asgard were always too hot, this is perfect._ The thought brought the slightest pang of negative thoughts. He quickly forced that train of thought from his mind by focusing the chill of the shower.

He closed his eyes and took a break from thinking; he focused on the feeling of the chilly water hitting his skin. It felt nice to put his overactive mind to rest for once. Loki continued like this for several minutes. He opened his eyes eventually, only to frown. His attention had settled to his arms. Both of them were no longer the pale skin tone; it was coated with intricate markings and the colour blue. His eyes moved along his entire body to see the spreading transformation of colour. His hands stopped the flow of water by pressing the controls off quickly.

Loki moved out of the shower and snatched up a towel to cover himself. He took a few shaky breaths, trying to stop the spreading blue colour. He felt automatically relieved as the colour started to change again, this time the blue receded. He dried off his body quickly and put on the stolen midgardian clothes once again due to the fact he didn't have anything else to change into. His burns were temporally tamed by the water but now they returned in full force. The shirt rubbing against them brought bursts of pain but Loki endured them, he adapted to the pain and practiced so his expression didn't even change.

Loki left the bathroom in order to search the room for anything that could be useful, preferably something that he could cover his neck burns with. He didn't like any of the Avengers to see that he was still somewhat still affected by earlier. The only useful thing that came up in his search was a roll of gauze where he found in a cabinet in the bathroom.

Loki rolled them around his neck, using the whole roll to cover his neck. His burns stung horribly with the constant contact but it was better than letting the Avengers seeing his weakness. After a short time of practice he no longer reacted from the constant pain. At that time he decided to leave the safe haven of the room and face his captors. Loki knew that if he stayed away from them for an extended amount of time it would be seen as weakness and maybe even fear. Those were feelings we could never let his enemies see or assume; Loki knew from experience that they could quite be easily used against him.

He opened the door and started his way down to the kitchen.

* * *

"Loki has left the room, Mr. Rodgers." A crisp British voice sounded from the walls. Steve seemed to perk up at the news slightly. Loki had been out for quite a while and he had stayed in the room for even longer. Long enough for Steve to question if Loki just went back to sleep, this time of his own accord. He could have just asked Jarvis what Loki was doing but he didn't feel right on using Jarvis to spy on the demi-god's every move.

The three resident Avengers were all in the living room watching a movie on Tony's excessively large flat-screen. That was the only thing that the Avengers decided on, since they coouldn't go out to a restaurant or even to a take-out place all because they were all pretty much on house arrest along with the demi-god. Tony fell asleep on the couch before barely any of the movie passed and Thor was watching the movie with full attention while shoveling handfuls of popcorn in his mouth, mesmerized by the moving, talking animals on the screen.

Steve was sitting on an arm chair with a sketch book clutched in his hand. Before the announcement he was drawing a tree filled landscape. After it, he had started shaking Tony awake.

"Mmmmm," As Steve was shaking Tony awake he started making humming voices, when he finally opened his eyes he made another indecipherable noise. "Hmmmmarrrrwat." Then it finally turn into words, "I was sleeping Steve! Why can't you read the manual for the Blu-ray player rather than harassing me for-"

Steve interrupted the ranting Tony with a simple sentence. "Loki has left the room."

At that sentence Tony seemed to sit up with the slightest amount of guilt and unease imprinted on his face. His hand quickly moved to the pause button on the Blu-ray player's remote. Tony didn't have a clever comeback to retort with.

"See? I have told the both of you that Loki was just choosing to keep his distance for a fair proximity of time before returning to our presence, friends," Thor stopped his devouring of the popcorn to speak to the pair.

"Hmm..." Tony acknowledged Thor with a hum. "Jarvis, were is Loki headed?"

"He is traveling downwards on the stairs at the current time, I believe his destination is the kitchen," Jarvis continued without even the slightest of flaw in his words. Tony couldn't help but grin slightly. The demi-god only stomached possible contact with them for food.

In only a few minutes some disturbance could be heard in the kitchen. They could hear the opening of the fridge, cupboards and the moving of chairs. Not even one of the Avengers, Earth's mightiest heroes made a move to go any closer to the location of a certain green eyed god. They didn't how the demi-god would react to them; it could be a positive or negative experience. Almost everyone assumed it would be the latter.

The noises continued and the movie wasn't resumed, curiosity still consumed Steve and Tony's mind. Thor moved back onto eating his popcorn which was depleting quickly. The irritating sound of Thor crunching mouthfuls popcorn was the only sound present other than the noise of the movement in the other room.

The chewing stopped and a loud voice boomed through the room. "Friend Stark, may you create more of this popped corn?" Thor was loud and after his brief sentence there was silence, the noises of movement in the kitchen now ceased to exist. Steve thought of Loki as a deer, preparing to run after the first sound of a possible threat. The metaphor ended as Loki moved into the living room, with quiet but quick footsteps. Tony seemed to pretend he was asleep again, Steve averted his eyes from the entranceway and back to his drawing and Thor opened his mouth.

"Brother!" Loki sent a glare Thor's way but the blonde man ignored it. "I am gladdened that you decided to join us!" Loki was giving all the Avengers a distasteful glance at this point. Tony still continued his façade of faking sleep but Steve looked up. Steve couldn't help but notice the blnding white bandages wrapped around Loki's neck.

"I have not-" Loki's voice was raspy and he stopped in order to correct himself by clearing his throat. "I have not come to join you. I merely wish to retrieve sustenance and my book." At this time Tony decided to "awaken" from his cat-nap.

"Are you wearing my shirt?" Tony's voice wasn't of anger but rather disbelief. He never imaged Loki would ever wear casual human clothing rather than wearing leather and armor. It looked strange to see the green eyed demi-god looking like… like… a human! Tony remembered fainted the demi-god wearing the clothing earlier before the out-burst but he didn't call it then.

"That I am," Loki answered but Tony was surprised once again, the god didn't lead with an insult and his green eyes moved down to the ground since Tony had arisen. The dark haired man seemed to lose his poisonous edge over the course of a few hours. Then the events of his last encounter of the day came back a full force at Tony, the demi-god seemed not to want a repeat even at the cost of his own pride.

Tony didn't say anything after that; the guilt temporally silenced his quick tongue. Loki moved over to grab a book that sat upon the coffee table. Steve had to interfere to attempt to diminish the awkward. "You are free to join us Loki."

Loki gave Steve a look that could also be used if the soldier grew a second head, it was of disbelief. That expression only stayed on his face for a brief second because he turned away and stalked back to the kitchen. He gave Steve no answer.

Steve frowned at Loki's reaction. Thor spoke up right after Loki's departure, "Don't be offended, my friend, Loki is distant from everyone at this point." A sad look crossed Thor's face but it disappeared as he turned back to Tony. "Stark, I wish for you to fetch me more of this delicious popped corn."

Tony broke out of his trance and spoke to Jarvis. "Give Thor the instructions to make his own popcorn Jarvis."

Steve intervened, believing another brotherly bonding session wasn't in anyone's best interests, interrupted, "I'll get you the um… popped corn." Steve took the metal popcorn bowl from Thor and started moving toward kitchen entrance.

* * *

Steve found Loki in a staring contest with a can of soup. His eyes were focused on instruction side and he was seated at the large table placed away from the appliances. When he noticed Steve's presence, his head moved over to the super-soldier. He didn't say anything; he just looked at Steve as if he was waiting for him to speak. When nothing was said Loki covered the silence with words. "It's not polite to stare." His words were mocking and his mouth curled up in a small smirk. Steve didn't answer; he just stayed at his post in the entranceway.

When he got no answer from Steve he started to talk again, "How do you make this To-ma-to soup? I've read the instructions but I have not much experience in midgardian cooking." Loki's tone had lost the condensing tone in his questioning.

Steve answered Loki with a smile, "Here I'll show you." Loki seemed a bit surprised by the friendliness but he passed the can to Steve. Steve went into action and Loki watched curiously as the super soldier pulled out multiple tools from the lower cupboards.

The soldier spoke again in a kind tone, "Would you like it made with milk or water?" Loki frowned at Steve's tone but he gave it a moment of consideration before answering. He thought of pleasant taste of Asgardian milk but wondered if Midgardian milk would even compare to the taste.

He decided to take a chance, "Milk."

Steve smiled again and turned away. A deep scowl now covered Loki's face as he thought of the soldier's current kind behavior. His main theory was that he wanted to deceive Loki by acting like this to him now and reap the benefits when Loki gained back his power. That was the only rational explanation for why his enemy was trying to play upon his humanity and morals. It was quite a shame that he had none. A cruel smile crossed Loki's face as he thought of taking the solider down first for his deceit.

Steve seemed to read Loki's smile wrongly. "You know what is good with tomato soup? Grilled cheese! I'll make some of those too. I think you'll like them, Loki. I think I'" Loki stared at the ecstatic Steve with disbelief; another theory came into Loki's mind as he watched the blonde man pour the red contents of the can into a pot. Was the man really tried to befriend the estranged and monstrous adopted brother of Thor? Not to mention his enemy. Loki shook the though from his head, such an idea was preposterous.


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note: Arrg, this chapter turned out to be another emotion centered one. It's also a bit shorter than the others but the next chapter should be better and more exciting! ^^ **

**Updates will be getting slower as the new school year grews closer for me just to say. The weekly updates may not be as common in the future. **

**Please review also. Each review makes me all happy and often persuades me to work on my story more. **

**And I thank all you all my readers. You guys are awesome. ^^**

**_Disclaimer: I do not own The Avengers. _**

* * *

"The food is ready! Loki can you go ask the others if they will join us?" Steve's voice ran through the room loudly but definitely not as loud as the other blonde haired resident of the house, his words were directed toward the green eyed god seated at a table. Just one glare the super soldier received from the dark haired man across the room caused his smile to lessen.

"No." Loki's answer was short and he said it almost automatically after Steve spoke.

"I made enough for everyone Loki, you don-" Steve was cut off midsentence by flawlessly spoken words laced with venom.

"I don't wish to dine with than blonde buffoon nor his loud mouthed companion," Loki's expression didn't give away anything; he kept an indifferent scowl brazen across his face.

"Loki with their mouths full of food I doubt they will be able to harass you," Steve let the slightest bit of exasperation in his tone without much thought. The demi-god didn't answer nor did he show any sort of signal to show a different answer; he just kept Steve's glare with the determination of a stubborn child. Silence was present in the room for a good few minutes before rushed heavy foot-steps sounded just outside the room.

"Loki what have you done to-" Thor burst into the room yelling with his hammer brandished but he stopped mid-step as burst into the room and saw the pair stuck in a staring contest. He started explained himself; trying to defend his honor from the two frowns he was the receiving end of. "The silence, I assumed that Loki… did something again."

At this Loki seemed to scoff at the blonde man with his lips twitching into the beginnings of a sneer. Steve seemed to speak, "Thor, I'm fine and do you think you could please…" Steve hesitated, trying to find the right words.

Loki finished Steve's sentence for him instead. "...get out?" Thor seemed to get that he wasn't wanted at the current time so he walked out in a dejected way without another word. That caused Loki's slight twitch of the lips to turn into a full blow smirk. Steve felt both the need to comfort his team-mate and continue to keep a cautious eye on the demi-god. After a moment of consideration he chose the latter, mostly due to the fact that Thor had Tony.

Steve doubted Tony would even remotely help with the problem, Steve assumed the billionaire would make it so much more worst but he didn't want to make the demi-god's thoughts upon his team worst. The demi-god already proved himself capable of causing problems even without magic or an alien army. Steve wasn't really keen on becoming the next victim of Loki's spare time.

His eyes turned back to the bubbling tomato soup on the stove and the plate of luke-warm grilled cheeses seated on the counter. Steve turned his attention from the dark haired demi-god cocky grin, to once again toward preparing the food. He dripped some of the reddish orange liquid into a bowl with a ladle, he cut a grilled cheese in half and he placed it on a one of Tony's nicer plates. The super soldier then placed them both carefully in front of the demi-god, moving as if he thought the demi-god as a wild and vicious animal.

Loki seemed to examine to the food carefully before reaching over to bring the sustenance closer to him. He made no move to eat either of the provisions; his eyes just followed the trail of steam rising up from the soup. Steve noticed what was amiss without Loki even asking. He moved over to once one the kitchen drawers to withdraw a shiny piece of silverware, a spoon.

Loki took it from the super soldier's hand without any encouragement or words. He still didn't touch the food; he seemed to be waiting for something. It took a few seconds before Loki spoke. "Why don't you take a bowl?" His tone was guarded and the poisonous green eyes searched Steve's; trying to pry Steve's thought's to the surface. He couldn't help but get a bit chill, the man/god before him seemed to have no trust in them, not even to the slightest extent. They even swore that they wouldn't finish him off and poisoned was listed as attempted murder.

Seeing the cautious demi-god not planning to do anything without reassurance; Steve grabbed himself a bowl and soup and a grilled cheese. Without the slightest bit of hesitation he took a large gulp of the red liquid and a massive bite out the sandwich. "There is no poison and it tastes good Loki," he said after swallowing.

Loki paused for a moment, staring at Steve to the point of making the super-soldier uncomfortable once again before taking a small spoon full of the soup. The demi-god didn't let his eyes stray even slightly away from Steve's blue ones. He slipped the small amount of liquid carefully, testing it. He seemed to be pleased with it and Steve almost smiled as he saw Loki's eyes light up slightly. He took another spoonful of the tomato soup; this time not being stingy at all.

Loki seemed to keep his grace even as he shoved spoonful upon spoonful of soup into his mouth like a starved animal, Steve knew if he ate that fast he would have his face covered in soup in a matter of seconds. Loki for once didn't look like the uppity, crazy, dictator, demi-god he often took the role of; he looked much like a satisfied child. He didn't quite want to interrupt Loki's meal but Steve spoke up anyway, "The grilled cheese tastes particularly good when you dip it in the soup, I'm quite fond of eating it like that."

Steve's words interrupted Loki's eating and he stopped and stared at Steve with what looked like irritation. Steve smiled at the demi-god's reaction to the interruption of his meal; he couldn't help but laugh slightly. This caused for Loki to frown in a quizzically way, as if he was puzzled by the super soldier's behavior. Steve still had a smile on his face but he stopped laughing. As if to show the demi-god how to do it, Steve took one of his grilled cheeses and placed it in the soup for a matter of a few seconds. He withdrew it right after and ate it. Loki made no movement to do anything differently; he just sipped more of his soup.

Steve was enjoying the sandwich and soup and he finished quickly. Loki however seemed to be savoring every mouthful of his soup as if it was his last. Steve smiled once again; it was so strange to see the man that once tried to kill them all and enslave the human race, eating tomato soup and well… not trying to kill them. "There is more soup you know."

Loki spoke once again, his words flowing with ease, "I have no need of your pitiful crimson soup."

Steve saw something else on Loki's face for a second as he spoke, it vanished quickly but Steve saw through Loki's lie due to the expression. "Well then, I guess your brother will enjoy the rest," Steve looking at the pot with a shake of his head. "What a shame, it will just get wolfed down in the matter of seconds. He wouldn't even take the time to enjoy it."

At this time Loki spoke up, "_I guess_ I would be able to stomach more of your midgardian swill." Steve let a smile cross his face once again, only to have Loki look up at with him with an expression suggesting that the green eyed demi-god thought Steve as an idiot.

* * *

Loki still couldn't figure out the soldier's motive. He kept smiled and _laughing._ The only purpose that served was making Loki believe that the blonde human was an idiotic simpleton. Loki's eyes never left the man as he worked around preparing the food, it would be simply foolish to let the blonde man do whatever he wished when he prepared food that was meant for Loki.

Loki really didn't want to be poisoned, at least not today. He had been poisoined before and it wasn't pleasant but he doubted that Migardian poison would affect him as it did a mortal. But of course, today he didn't quite feel up to gambling. He still felt the after effects from the All-fathers bloody collar, he resisted to touch his burns after thinking of the event mostly due to the fact showing weakness in a den of wolves wasn't the best idea. He didn't even retreat into his thought or the book that was placed just an arm's length away. His ever careful eyes kept watching the strange man.

The man seemed to be cheerful or at least, forging the emotion with mastery. Loki never thought the Captain of ever be capable of the smallest lie rather than a careful ruse like he was doing now. Looks can be deceiving though, Loki's thoughts turned toward the exclusive Black Widow. The captain didn't even let sort of negative emotion cross his face other than the occasional moments of indecision. Unlike Natasha who kept her face void of everything and her true emotion tucked away, farther than Loki's clever eyes could reach. The captain was different though, it was if he kept his heart on his shoulder.

Loki seemed to get more confused by the moment by the Captain's behavior. He was slightly relieved when the Captain stopped his activity to talk with him. _At least maybe I'll get some info on his plans._

"The food is ready! Loki can you go ask the others if they will join us?" The captains words were painfully chipper and all Loki wanted to do at the time was to wipe it off with a fatal blast of magic. But unfortunately that option wasn't available for him at the time, so he had to settle for less.

Loki's voice rang as clear as a bell through the room and the pale demi-god couldn't help but relish in change of expression on the captain's face. "No."

"I made enough for everyone Loki, you don-" Loki knew his answer and he did not nor had any plans to change it. It was fairly childish but he decided it was either him or the simpletons. If the Captain wanted to play his game he would do it alone.

"I don't wish to dine with than blonde buffoon nor his loud mouthed companion," Loki controlled his tone, not letting his distain and stubbornness show through the tone but the look of determination on his face was enough to tell Steve that he wouldn't be swayed in his decision. The captain seemed to disagree against Loki's terms and then a mental battle of wills commenced. Loki showed no sign of giving in and he could feel the slightest bit of triumphant at Steve's weakening will.

That was when thundering steps could be heard. Loki wasn't even slightly surprised as the blonde brute burst into the room. Multiple loud words commenced and stopped to being more bashful. Loki didn't really care; he wasn't listening to the idiot's words in the slightest. Loki didn't even acknowledge the yelling idiot with words; he just let his thoughts be shown in a sneer. Thor seemed to start sputtering nonsense in which Loki had no interest in listening, his attention transferred back to focus on the super soldier. Loki watched the man struggle with finding the right words to get the blundering blonde fool out and to also preserve his feelings.

"Thor, I'm fine and do you think you could please…"

Loki thought of several things he would say to get the soldiers desired effect if he was in Steve's place. Of course, he wasn't and he didn't plan on allying himself with the blue eyed oaf. Instead Loki spoke a pair of words to accompany Steve's stutters.

"…get out?" Loki took pleasure in the way Thor left; the unhappiness on the blonde's face brought Loki's mood up. It was nice to see the often fawned over Asgardian prince actually feeling dejected and lonely for once; the thought brought a quick half-smile to Loki's lips. As the super soldier turned to Loki once again he let the small smile turn into a large arrogant smirk. It wasn't real but the bit of ice showing in the soldier's eyes did make Loki feel a bit better, mostly due to the fact that it proved his point of the soldier only trying to make life with the green eyed demi-god more bearable.

He understood the ideals that the super soldier was reaching for at last. That thought didn't bring Loki the triumphant emotions he had expected, he just felt a little lonelier. He forced the thought from his mind as he attempted to focus his attention once again on the cooking Steve.

* * *

The midgardian soup was quite tasty, that was something Loki admitted to himself even though he refused to show that to his enemies. The soldier let him have as much as he could eat, he wasn't at all hungry after the second bowl but he wanted to polish off the majority of the soup merely so Thor couldn't have any. It was extremely childish and Loki knew it but he just wanted to have control of _something_, even something as small as making sure Thor didn't even get a taste of the warm midgardian food.

Steve turned his back to Loki once again to clean what he used to create the meal. Loki took the chance to dip his grilled cheese into the soup as the soldier's back was to him and he was out of the captain's visibility because of that. The soup stained the bread red and Loki took an eager bite to destroy the evidence. He didn't need the captain to see that he listened to his suggestion and took upon himself in trying what he described as "tasty." The soup and the sandwich blended to make an overall superior taste, Loki even risked dropping his whole sandwich into the soup. He watched it turn red and he fished it out of the soup with difficulty, balancing it on his spoon to eat it.

What Loki didn't know, that Steve saw the whole thing through the reflective surface of the stainless steel appliances. Steve body shook with silent laughter at the bizarreness of seeing the crazed, bloody-thirsty demi-god acting like nothing more than a curious child. It was not something he would think would have happened after they sent to demi-god back to Asgard. Just more than a week ago they were fighting the same demi-god and the green eyed demi-god was bent on killing them. It was a strange thought indeed but Steve continued on that train of thought.

* * *

The soup and grilled cheeses were all gone, mostly due to Loki's decision to not let Tony or Thor to have any. Steve didn't challenge the demi-god's decision; he just went along with it. He knew what would have happened if he fed the two other Avengers as well, Tony would probably mock him for cooking and still eat his food while Thor would just devour everything, then he would demand more by yelling out "ANOTHER!" in a voice extremely not even close to being an indoor voice. At least Loki didn't mock him (Steve was surprised by that) nor did he demand more food. After all the food was gone the demi-god simply stood up, grabbed his book and made way to the door.

"Thank you."

Steve picked up a pair of barely audible words as the demi-god vanished from sight. He stood there shocked, he expected for the god to leave on a snide comment but he let his face curl into a small smile. At that time he didn't really care about his suspicions of Loki playing the Avenger's emotions to gain his godly status once again.

* * *

Loki let his frown almost grow to a snarl as he moved through the halls; his goal was the room in which he stayed in. His thoughts were filled with both frustration and confusion, mostly due to the fact that he found the captain's behavior both infuriating and pleasant. Sentiment… Loki hissed out that word in his mind. It was such a useless thing but yet it still managed to affect him. That just infuriated him more and by the time he returned to the given room, he was angry enough to punch the wall. His fist landed upon the wall and imprinted a mark on the wall. Loki hand lacked any damage though; his godly strength and resilience still remained. The All-father lacked the ability to completely remove it mostly due to his different heritage.

The little burst of violence caused Loki to regain his composure, he took a deep intake of breath before opening the door into his given room. It was as he left it; the beds sheets were ruffled, a towel remained rested on the bed and the remaining roll from the gauze was placed in the small bedside bin of disposable objects.

Loki walked farther in without much thought; his first destination was the bathroom. He stopped in front of the mirror to remove the bandage from his irritated wounds. He winced at every movement of the fabric as it rubbed along the affect area. Loki wasn't in the slightest fond of burns or any sort of damage made by fire, magical or otherwise. It was quite ironic, he thought with an ill sense a humor as he remembered one of his many titles. The god of fire. Loki almost sniggered at Odin's sense of justice and irony. _To be ended by my own magic and element, poetic justice indeed, _Loki's let a dark smile grace his features. The bandages were off at this point as he got a good look at his wounds. They looked better than they did a few hours ago but not at all by much. They still blazed an angry red.

Loki gave an exasperated sigh and he let his hand slide down his hair to distract his restless hands from touching the wound like a curious child. He already knew it hurt and touching it wouldn't gain him anything, except make the burn sorer. His eyes were examining the wound through the mirror without any sort of contact.

And that was when a loud noise came from the connected room. It sounded of something big hitting a hard surface mixed with the shattering of glass. His warrior disciple kicked in and his wound was forgotten as he went into high alert.

Loki didn't left the bathroom but instead he pressed himself to the wall connected to the door and let his green eyes examine the room thoroughly for some sort of weapon. Due to the fact he lacked the ability to use magic he had to rely on nothing more than brute force, much like a certain blue eyed Asgardian brute. He came up with nothing that would be much use; the items were either made up of a semi-flimsy midgardian made material called plastic or the objects attached to larger components of the room in a permanent manor.

Loki could hear heavy footsteps in the connected room accompanied with the whirl of machines. The sounds of machines were also accompanied by another noise. They were repeated clicks; each click was slightly different from the previous. Loki could quite easily recognize the sound. He did spend a fair chunk of time with the chitauri.

* * *

******Author's Note:** I apologize for ending on a note like this one but in the middle of key events are the best time to stop! XD 


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Note: This ones a long chapter. ^^ But I don't think it turned out the best but I'm pretty tired of rewritting it. XD**

**Just so you guys know, when Tony and Loki are thinking, it may seem long but in the world of the story it only takes less than a minute, so yeah the thinking sessions may be a bit longer in writing than they really are in the scheme of the story. **

**Also I now have a Beta reader! :D TruffleHead will be helping me with improving the previous chapters along with future ones. ^^ **

**I probably won't get a chapter released next week because that is when summer vacation ends. Hopefully I can get one out the week after. **

**Thanks again for the reviews, Alerts and Favorites! ^^ **

******Please review also. Each review makes me a little more inspired and often persuades me to work on my story more. **

**_Disclaimer: I do not own The Avengers. _**

* * *

Loki could feel his heartbeat increase in tempo as soon as he came to that realization. He pressed himself to the wall and attempted to slow his breathing in order to make them less audible. He knew it was futile because they most likely knew he was residing in Stark's tower but he thought it as the best thing to do.

Loki's mind strayed to his time with the chitauri. He remembered them taking his weak, defeated form to their ship and eventually their leader after the fall. He remembered their many attempts to break him; to rob him of both free will and spirit. He remembered when they reached their goal. The one memory that remained the strongest of his time with the Other was the pain, the loneliness and the hopelessness. His body gave an involuntary shiver at the thoughts.

Loki listened to the noise, making no movement to look out the door or to move from his spot. He could still hear them, for creatures supposed to be capturing a stealthy, fast and resourceful master of mischief, they weren't at all quiet. Their machines hummed at a constant rate and they made no action to quiet their chattering. By the overly loud sound of chittering; Loki assumed the worst. There was more than one.

Loki was known as the master of all tongues for a reason; he understood the chitauri but knowing what they said didn't sooth Loki's fears in the slightest.

_"The Other spoke of Silvertongue being here." _

_"Where is the lower being?"_

_"He named as being clever, he would hid much as the pathetic prey he is."_

_"The Other describes him as a emotional fool."_

_"He was warned of being hunted for his failure." _

_"Warning gives time; for the prey to flee." _

Loki listened to the chitauri's banter without any comfort; he wasn't surprised that the Other found his location so quickly. The Other had ways of gathering information. Loki thought of what the mortals scuttling around the streets would think of the creature who killed many of their kin; returning to blow up Stark's window. Loki was curious at the thought of the panicked mortals stampeding down the streets in fear.

If the situation wasn't so grim, Loki would have laughed. He was still the center point of all the chaos and that was the way he liked it. The chitauri wouldn't have arrived the second time if it wasn't for his presence on the pathetic planet. They would have come anyways on the first time to retrieve the Tesseract but this time it was all him. All the destruction was under his name and no one else's. He was no longer in someone else's shadow; he was casting his own made of both chaos and fear.

The chitauri seemed to be alerted by something since Loki's could hear them drawing out their weapons, it was that or they could have located the demi-god and were preparing to exterminate or threaten him. Loki guessed the latter; the Other promised him something so much worse than pain and a quick death didn't fall behind that category.

Loki's scowl deepened as he thought of the possible scenarios; he could get captured by the chitauri and tortured to the inch of death or he could be rescued by the resident heroes; take a hefty blow to his pride and give the mortal Stark more material for him to mock the dark haired demi-god with. Neither of the options were desirable but he would have to go for the latter option due to the fact he still had a chance; however small to regain his godly abilities and the mortals were much better company than the Other.

Loki continued his attempt to evade the chitauri's by using their lack of observation as advantage. But as Loki would guess, his luck was bound run out; he just didn't know when. All he was doing was stalling. And from the change in the tones of the chitauri's chittering; Loki knew his luck has left him.

_"The room has been scanned."_

_"The jotun's body heat is harder to detect than the humans but the others have managed to acquire it."_

_"Where is his location?" _

_"Two steps to the northwest."_

The chitauri's spoke through a communication device; Loki could hear each of the words coming from the mechanism and chitauri's mouth's, all of the words were in the chitauri's language of noises. He calmed himself and rid himself of the emotions on his face. He wouldn't be taken as a sniveling coward. Loki moved from his position pressed to the wall; it was a good move because as Loki moved a blast ripped through the wall where Loki was once standing from one of the chitauri's weapons.

Loki didn't act like he was fazed; instead he held a smug smirk on his face even thought he felt not even the slightest bit of smugness; he didn't feel anything related to smugness. It was just another mask covering Loki's true thoughts and emotions.

The chitauri made some more inhuman clicks, this time directed to Loki. Loki's careful eyes scanned over the room to count their numbers. It was rather small force; they came in a group of around twenty but Loki really doubted this small group were the only ones on midgard at the current time. The Other should know that the Avengers were highly capable of handling many more scores of chitauri foot soldiers.

_"Hiding behind the heroes, little jotun? I don't see them coming to rescue you; I suppose they can't wait to rid themselves of impurity like you."_

_"The Asgardian will be most thrilled; he can go on with his life without a disgusting jotun as a pet, demanding for his attention constantly." _Another chitauri added in, the other chitauri made some additional illegible chicks that Loki assumed were laughing. He was seething in the inside but he kept his mask on thoroughly, the only change was that he let his smirk transform into a cold, indifferent expression.

The chitauri's continued with their jibes as if they would rather their target would give them an excuse to mutilate him before they took him to their leader. Loki wasn't buying it, he kept a cold indifference to his once allies.

_"You are nothing, you are scum. _

_"You failed conquering Asgard."_

_"You failed in capturing Midgard."_

_"You have been given many chances and every time they were to fail." _

_"No one loves you."_

_"No one likes you."_

_"No one wants you."_

_"You are nothing."_

_"You are worthless."_

Loki let no expression cross his face as he continued his façade as everyone of his insecurities was flung back at him. He remembered the time after the fall when the chitauri found his broken body deposited on their meteorite and how little… _persuasion _it took for them to learn everything. It took even less for them to use it against him. He had let their words get to him once but he wouldn't let it happen again. He wouldn't be manipulated by such lowly, such _crude_ creatures. Loki's words were spoken as much cold venom he could relay in the chitauri's language of chatters; they held none of the calm his face shown.

"Such pathetic creatures you are. The invasion on Midgard's failure lies with you. It's a shame that Midgard's protectors didn't finish off every last one of your kind since you are exactly the weakness you preach against."

Multiple chitauri seemed to make some sort of displeased hissing sound and they raised their guns. Loki stared at them with a slightly smile curling his lips. He saw something that the chitauri were too distracted to see out the new hole in Start Towers.

* * *

Tony had retreated to his lab after Steve went to try and make peace with the insane demi-god. He really didn't want to deal with anymore of his houseguests. Steve was decent but he didn't know how to work anything in the house; Loki, he had to admit was okay as long as he stayed in his room rather than messing around with Tony's house like a gremlin but he the problem was the more of the third guest in his tower.

Thor was probably the friendly out of them all and the easiest to get along with; Steve didn't approve of his alcoholism and his behavior while he didn't trust Loki at all mostly due to him being evil, manipulative, homicidal, crazy and a villain. Thor was always happy and accepting. It was also fairly easy to screw with the big guy and get humorous outcomes.

But the problem was in Thor and his... _slight_ phobia of Earth's modern technologies; especially Tony's. The cleaning robots Thor took out were just the icing on the cake. Anything that startled the big guy was pounded to the ground without little more thought. That was happened to the toaster earlier, a few more housekeeping robots and even the sink in Thor's room because the big guy ripped off the ornamental taps (Pepper chosen) with his large and extremely strong hands after the whole Loki fiasco.

Tony remembered the state the bathroom with a sigh. Being squirted by a broken piece of plumbing resorted to the fancy and expensive countertop to be pummeled beyond recognition. Even more vividly Tony remembered the water spitting from the pipes as Thor continued to hit it with his hammer as Jarvis sent Tony the live video feed.

Tony thought of explaining everything in the house to Thor but he really didn't want to. Jarvis had trying under Tony's orders but it didn't help in the slightest; once Thor was startled he would use as much brute force as the hulk to take down his "enemy."

Tony gave another audible exasperated sigh; his thoughts were such on the idiots upstairs rather than his inventing.

"Jarvis? What is the status on Reindeer games, Captain Spandex and the god-of-over-reacting?" Tony asked, hoping his house was still whole.

"Mr. Loki is in his given room, Mr. Odinson is eating the majority of edible items in the ground level kitchen unit refrigerator and cupboards, and Mr. Rogers is in the gym exercising."

"Keep me updated on all of them; I really don't want to replace more appliances than I need too," With his worried mind soothed Tony managed to get at least part of his thoughts focused on his tinkering. At the current time he was trying to improve the Stark phone that Pepper continued hassling him about finishing from a convention off away in Canada which she was presenting in. Tony decided after worrying her with the knowledge of a certain insane demi-god living in his house; he would try to calm her own by getting something done.

Tony had music blaring from his many speakers around the room; it drowned out the sounds of him experimenting with the circuits of the small hand held device. After Jarvis rid him of his worries, he managed to get into an inspirational mood, mostly due to the fact he would rather stay in his lab than deal with any of the other residences. No one wanted to visit him in the lab; Loki shared a mutual dislike with Tony, Steve was fairly confused by any of the 21st century technology and Tony wanted to just keep Thor out of his lab for very obvious reasons.

He was focused completely on his work when his room was suddenly void of music, it just went off to made way for Jarvis's words.

"There is a breach in security. A section of the tower was attacked by an external force."

This caused Tony to drop his work automatically; he didn't even care to put the incomplete phone down carefully. It just was dropped to the table with a clatter.

"Jarvis bring up a live feed," Tony's ordered.

"I apologize, sir; the access to the cameras has been cut off by some form of small and controlled electromagnetic pulse." Tony's thoughts strayed to the one person he thought capable of something like that; a certain green eyed demi-god and his hocus pocus.

"Jarvis tell the others to suit up," Tony was fairly unhappy; he let the ungrateful god stay in his house, which did equal the extravagance of an extremely expensive hotel and he was repaid with humiliation, guilt and a giant freakin' hole in his tower. This caused Tony to believe by hundred percent, that karma was bullshit.

He let his robots arm him with his newest suit; it was done quickly since speed was the essence. In a matter of seconds Tony was decked out with gold and red. He left through the large window that opened with just a command; Tony decided that since there was already a hole in his building; he might as well use it as an entrance to get at the traitorous god.

Tony flew outside and up; moving with his mastery of flight as Iron Man. His goal was in plain sight; it was really hard to miss a massive hole that was punched through both through the wall and window. It was located in the room Tony let Loki use. Tony promised to himself that he would stick the bothersome demi-god into the Shield regulated room at the first chance.

Tony was calling himself stupid mentally because they trusted the god of lies. He saw or at least was convinced that Loki was in serious pain but it was just so stupid to think that the green eyed demi-god would give up his tricks temporarily over injury; that the demi-god would call a temporary truce to lick his wounds.

But yet it still made no sense; Tony's thoughts seemed start running on logic once again rather than just on raw emotion. Loki had no powers. He wouldn't be able to blow up the tower with magic. He would have to be using explosives and Tony doubted Loki knew anything about modern weapons or even anything about science.

_What if he had made other enemies…? _Tony found it a valid thought; if the demi-god was able to get all of Earth pissed off at him he should have been able to get people from other planets angry. At this point he had reached the hole and saw the scene playing in the ravaged courters of one of his guest rooms. Loki seemed to be making strange, weird sounding clicks at an impossible speed. His face showed a smirk but yet his eyes burned with cold fury. What drew Tony's attention even more were the multiple anthropomorphic reptilian creatures standing in the room; their attention trained on Loki.

What triggered memories for Tony was their intricate amour and their detailed, deadly weapons and the strange flying bikes that were settled to the side of the room. Tony stood there in midair to watch for a second, he had no idea what was happening but it looked like Loki was being reunited with his chitauri allies but Tony noticed something else; the alien's body language.

They had their guns at the ready as if they were prepared to shoot Loki full of laser beams. Another thing Tony noticed was that by every chitter Loki made, the chitauri seemed to grow more irritated and angry. Loki seemed to be an expert in pissing everyone off, human or otherwise. They even went to the extent of directing their weapon's at the angle for a clear shot at Loki's head.

At this point Loki seemed to meet Tony's eyes; his intense green eyes seared through Tony's mask to meet his brown ones. At that time one of the chitauri hissed out some additional noises with a much harsher tone and that same one pressed the trigger on its alien gun without anymore persuasion.

That's when Tony decided that Loki wasn't at fault for ruing his tower this one time.

* * *

Loki moved with godly speed as a projectile came racing out of one of the chitauri's weapons. It passed where Loki's already marred neck was located just a few moments ago. This just seemed to make the chitauri even furious so more started shooting their weapons but with the grace of a talented warrior; none left more than a few burnt hairs. Tony started to pick off the enraged aliens from behind with blasts from the gantlets of his suit.

The chitauri seemed to focus their spirit out on the man clocked in metal; Loki assumed that they knew of his condition because their attack faded from him and onto Stark. If Loki was with his abilities, he would be able to make all of the foot soldier's heads explode. Loki moved to the outskirts of the battle where he assumed he wouldn't be caught in the crossfire. It infuriated him to know end but he knew with his current handicap he wouldn't be able to influence the tide of the battle in the slightest and he would be nothing more than annoyance in the fight.

Stark was fairing quite well against the chitauri, he let loose multiple blasts from his metal gloves and almost all of his blasts left a chitauri dead. It only started to concern Loki when one of the chitauri seemed to be a good shot; the blast hit the man of Iron with force and its recoil sent Stark backwards. Loki felt a small seed of worry grow as he noticed the red and gold of Stark's suit were tarnished by the blast and the ugly indent made in the previously pristine suit.

Stark seemed to stagger slightly by the hit but the chitauri didn't give him a break. Another hit made its mark but the second didn't cause as much destruction on the suit. Stark was right back onto shooting chitauri down with his blasters, his movements were unhindered by the small amount of damage.

The chitauri at this point were cut down to a very small number so they decided to attempt using their minds rather than brute force. One of the chitauri decided to move close to Loki and it directed its gun to point it only a few inches away from Loki's head. Loki didn't do much to stop the chitauri, mostly due to the face the chitauri were most likely ordered by the Other to take him alive or else torture wouldn't quite work.

The chitauri's voice was rough and ragged as he spat out words in English directed toward the man cloaked in red and gold. "Shoot one last time and I remove the jotun's head from his body." Stark didn't slow down in the slightest; Loki thought Starks actions were either he didn't really care about Loki meeting his demise or he just expected Loki to finish off his own target. Loki suspected the latter.

Loki watched the movements of his chitauri captor carefully; his eyes narrowed as he saw the chitauri's hands tightening around its powerful weapon. The chitauri shouldn't be able to break from its orders; the Other always held complete control over the chitauri. But, this one chitauri showed itself to be able to break orders from its leader. Loki's mind thought of an answer in a matter of seconds; could it be without a nearby portal, ergo a nearby mothership, they lacked the complete and utter control of their one leader?

That seemed like a rational explanation due to the fact that a large portal couldn't exist on midgard without the humans noticing; however it could exist for a short amount of time and sent a limited number troops over with a simple goal. But something the Other failed to account for was the limited access between the troops and the most likely rebuild mothership that it wouldn't deny the chitauri acting on their own impulses; they were still connected or else the chitauri would shut down but must be very faint. If thw chitauri were capable of making their own decisions it proved that some were lacked intelligence but Loki expected for there to be a few with clever minds.

That one fact made the chitauri more dangerous and more so unpredictable.

What Loki knew from both experience and his former constant presence in the Asgard library; it was that the chitauri were known as an unruly and barbaric people. When the chitauri were under Loki's control; he made sure they made quick kills in order for them midgard to be quickly dominated but on their own, Loki assumed the worst. They would probably turn Midgard completely upside down in the cruelest and goriest manner. He could image the human's being slaughtered like cattle and going to the exact same use that they use the bovine for. He remembered what sort of edible items he has been given during his _stay_ with the chitauri and most of it wasn't pleasant.

It was rather disgusting, meaningless and not to mention very crude.

Loki's detailed thinking session ended as chitauri let the trigger of his weapon go. With his godly speed along with that fact he was already expecting it, Loki managed to avoid it. As the blast went to ruin more of Stark's walls, Loki let his hand latch on the chitauri's weapon arm; striking with the speed of an angry viper. With the surprise of the demi-god's attack, the chitauri lost hold of his weapon; it hit the ground with a clatter.

Loki's eyes held a deadly calm as he tapped into his jotun strength; one thing the All-father lacked the ability to steal from him due to his different heritage. A crack sound from the reptilian creature's arm as Loki applied force. It could have been anything that made that noise, the chitauri's bones, his exoskeleton or whatever else; Asgardian books didn't at all describe chitaurian physique.

Almost immediately, the chitauri gave a howl of pain. At that moment of distraction, Loki let one of his legs hit the chitauri's armored ones causing them to bend and fall underneath it. The chitauri fell to the ground but aimed to get up as Loki's foot slammed into its reptilian face. Loki repeatedly kicked it a few more times before the trashing calmed down to nothing.

Loki wasn't fazed in the slightest he looked down at the slightest bit of blood covering his Asgardian leather shoes, all citizens of Asgard; current or former knew how to kill because it was just a simple matter of life. Loki wasn't any different, he felt nothing as always. It was the same now as it was since his last visit on midgard.

Loki looked up from the corpse and toward the fight behind him. The silence was only marred by the quiet humming of the fire slipping from Stark's suit's boots. Unsurprisingly, human's suit was barely marred from the attack, only the damage from the two hits remained and those two blasts didn't even past through the metal.

Loki watched with fading interest as the mortal let the mask on his suit open up to reveal his face. The mortal opened his mouth as to say something but commotion came from a direction away from the window. Loki turned his head to look at the entering figures of both Thor and Steve. The twosome took one look into the room and their expressions matched; they both had almost comical shock written on their faces.

Their second action was to look a Loki with their expressions made up of with mixed emotions. Loki just stared back at them without a flaw in his emotionless mask; it took them much more than a few seconds to speak.

"Didn't we kill them all?" Steve spoke first; his words mirrored the confusion written on his face as he stared at the corpses.

"That's something I would like to know." A new voice sounded and it made everyone jump. The newcomer's tone was commanding. The man stood of a small helicopter with the ladder hanging out. He stood where Tony's wall once was; his black trench coat billowing in the wind.


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Note: This story has reached 100 alerts! I never expected it to reach even close to that amount when I started this story; I thought it was going to have a few hundred views and maybe 20 alerts. I thank all 100 of you for reading my story. ^^**

**This chapter is all in Loki point of view because I enjoy writing for him the most. This one just lets you guys look into the head of Loki over the past events. It isn't all that exciting, but I find writing these slow chapters the easiest. **

**It took me a while to get this chapter out due to the fact school has starting and is taking up most of my time. I'm hoping to get into a habit of releasing chapters biweekly but no promises. **

**This chapter doesn't really go any where plot wise but the next chapter will. In the next chapter I will be _introducing_ more characters. ^^**

**_Disclaimer: I do not own The Avengers. _**

* * *

The small group of heroes and the villain were wearing nothing but shock on their faces as they stared at the one eyed man standing before them. It was a surprise, yes; but most of the heroes weren't thrilled that Fury had decided to come at this time; probably because it didn't look too good when Stark had multiple dead aliens littering the ruined room.

Loki was the first to erase the bewilderment from his expression; in its place there was now an unreadable mask. He said nothing even though his silver tongue itched to go into action; speaking would not help his case in the slightest, mostly due to the fact Loki knew that he defiantly wasn't in the director's good books and the surroundings did look mighty suspicious.

The Captain opened his month to speak first as if he thought it was his place but he stopped; Loki guessed he was just as confused as the director about what happened, but Loki assumed the Captain's thoughts were much less… aggressive than the man with the name already suggesting anger. It continued to be an awkward silence until Stark saw it as his place to talk.

"Care to enlighten us, Reindeer games?" Stark's tone wasn't angry or startled; he spoke it with his usal irritating superior tone. At this point Loki decided to match the human's horribly annoying aura with his own sneer.

"Did you really think you could take out a whole species with just one explosive device?" Loki said, barely concealing the mocking tone. Those words seemed to put the alert the Avengers; they seemed to tense while waiting for Loki to continue. The green eyed god almost smiled; did they really expect him to give away his leverage of knowledge for nothing more than honor or, perhaps for thanks for taking him into Stark's tower? They were nothing but fools if they thought that their enemy would aid them for nothing but a few free meals and boarding. He wasn't a dog, no matter the appearance of the despicable collars that rested upon his neck.

Seeing no answer, Thor decided to speak in Loki's stead. "I know little of the chitauri but something I know of them is that they are wide spread; they reside anywhere they can." Loki rolled his eyes slightly at the harshness in Thor's tone; the blonde spoke with nothing but distaste and hatred. He spoke as if it was all the chitauri's fault for the Asgardian prince losing his brother. Loki let his hand rest upon his face as if to cover up slightest of smiles that crossed his face in that instant; Thor still thought himself as a saint and that entertained Loki. Thor with his brutish tactics probably ended the lives of so many more than Loki but it was always under the excuse of battle and honor.

Fury seemed to pick up on Loki's change in expression; his eyebrow narrowed as his one intense eye directed itself to Loki's direction. "I don't see the humor in this situation, mongrel." Loki's brief smile faltered into a scowl as he was addressed by a particularly effective insult.

"_Ouch_," Loki taunted, "I do believe insults are rather unprofessional, I'm surprised such an _accomplished man _would succumb to such things." Loki's words dripped with sarcasm.

Fury's expression hardened and his words were sharp and forceful, "Why are they here?"

Loki met his one eyed glare with two of his own; there was only silence as the two dominant minds fought it out through their staring contest, "Why else other than to get revenge?" Loki broke the silence with a shrug of his shoulders. It wasn't completely truth but it still wasn't completely a lie; they did want revenge and who they wanted to vent it on, _was_ on the Midgardian's precious planet.

"You led them here, the attack was yours and yet they still continue without you? Are you still pulling the strings?" The director's voice leaked ill intent and anger. Loki decided for this instance; the truth may help however much he disfigured it for his own benefit.

With slight hesitant Loki started to speak again with his honeyed words, "Well you see; I wasn't exactly the one in full control." This seemed to shock the Avengers even more, Loki made sure to fixate their humorous expressions in his mind permanently. As the director's mouth opened once again, Thor cut him off with his loud manner of speaking.

"Bro-"

"Don't call me that." Loki was really starting to get in habit of cutting Thor off as he addressed Loki with a title that never belonged to him.

"-ther." The blonde brute was still determined not to stop. "Why did they give you the chance to take this planet? And how did you gain yourself an army of the chitauri?" Thor's face was so easy to read, his blue eyes glimmered with surprise and most of all, hope. Loki assumed the hope sprang from Thor's fantasy that somehow his _little brother_ was being _controlled_ and now that the oaf saved him they would become close once again.

"Are you surprised Thor that the black sheep of Asgard would be amount to anything? Are you surprised I was able to gain an army to serve my own purposes? Are you surprised I managed to escape your shadow?" Loki let a crazed, feral grin cross his face.

"Loki you are my bro-" Loki cut Thor off once again.

"Of course you didn't think; no matter how many times you claim that I am your brother. I know I was extremely far from your thoughts as you celebrated my almost certain demise." Loki snorted.

"No one celebrated, we mourned." Thor said his words forcefully as if to cover up the tell tale signs of his dishonesty; Thor was never a good liar.

"There are others who are just as knowledgeable as the Allfather and there is also magic to watch both the present and past of other realms as Heimdall is able to. No one can hide from _him_." Loki hissed out the last word, his voice didn't increase in volume like Thor's but it was quiet easy to tell that Loki was getting agitated.

"Him? Who is him?" Thor asked.

Loki let a bitter smile cross his face in answer. Thor didn't try to fight against Loki's accusation; it brought Loki to the conclusion that the words _they_ whispered in his ears and the images _he_ placed in his head were true or at least partly. He couldn't say he didn't expect such a thinly veiled lie and more betrayal.

The forgotten pair of Avengers seemed to hang in the back; not wanting in the slightest to join the quarrel of the Asgardian brothers even though Stark seemed to consider riling them on. Fury was different from the two though, he quickly spoke in the pause before Thor could send the conversation spiraling into fight.

"Who was the one in control?" The director was blunt in both his words and tone.

Loki moved his piercing green eyes from Thor and back to the director, "I have been given no name." His words were spoken with a forced coldness; he was trying to keep himself from losing control of his tongue as he did with Thor.

"Fine; why did he help you in attempting to take over our planet?" Fury's words now hinted frustration.

"I do not know what goes on other's minds," Loki lied; he was fairly good at reading people and most of the time he found it quite easy to manipulate them using their own thoughts and emotions. The Other was a different story though.

"Then tell me what his purpose was."

"It holds no concern."

"It_ does_," Fury spat out the words, he was getting angrier by the minute. Loki took satisfaction in his small victory.

"Calm down Fury, I do believe you are turning a little on the green side." Loki gave a forged smile of concern which turned into a smirk. It really didn't help Fury's temper that Stark couldn't help but break into sniggers at Loki's comment. The captain wasn't exactly stoic either; his eyes wandered as if he was trying to think up a solution to stop the possible fight.

Fury turned around and moved back to the small helicopter with only a few angry words, "You get 6 hours to get your act together mutt. Stark, I'll send someone to dispose of the bodies." Loki continued his smirk at the retreating figure even though he could feel annoyance rising up from the less than tasteful comments the director used to address him. But Loki had to admit, he couldn't be too insulted; he had been called countless worst insults in every language imaginable. He still didn't like it though; he didn't need to be constantly reminded of the control his enemies held over him.

Loki watched the helicopter leave with narrowed eyes and when it was out of sight he started to move to the stairwell without a glance toward the fellow beings around him.

"Hey! You still need to explain!" Stark broke the silence that settled among the 4 people and many alien corpses littered on the ground.

Loki didn't even bother to turn around as he answered but he stopped in place only for as long as his words lasted. "I have explained."

The tall figure of the demi-god disappeared from the ravaged room, leaving the Avenger's behind without another pause or word.

* * *

Loki's only stop was at Stark's higher level entertainment room; it was only a floor away from the destroyed room but it wasn't touched by any of the damage. He gave a sight as he took a seat on one of Stark's overly large leather seats without any hesitance. At this time he rested on the animal hide and let his thoughts consume him.

The chitauri found him fast, Loki expected at least to have a month of peace before they would discover his location, but such a luxury was to be denied to him, just like everything else. He lazily went through different theories in his head until he settled on one that was met with full attention.

It was a simple conclusion, he was in one of the most predicable places Odin could have put him. Banishment has happened to one of his prince's before, why not to the other? It also helped to avoid informing others of Asgard that he still lived and that Loki had committed crimes against many other realms. His trial was only known by a few people so the All-father still let the people think of him as dead instead of letting Loki shame the royal family with his crimes.

Midgard was also planet without much protection, it would be just so easy for chitauri to hunt him due to the fact most of the Midgardian's were fragile and their weapons mediocre. The Midgardians already proved themselves that without the Avengers they would fall. The Avengers may have been marked as his guardians, but the _he_ who pulled all the strings behind the invasion was beyond clever and _he_ would find a way. Loki cursed the old fool in his mind; he was a target set for shooting. It was such a predictable choice; his enemies could easily get the jump on him.

His thoughts then lead to a new direction; what if Odin wanted to indirectly end him? It would save the All-father from the blame of both his son and wife for killing what they both still saw as their kin. It was much cleaner than a public execution and it would most likely appease the chitauri and keep Asgard from war with whomever _he_ could convince to fight. It was a rather convenient way to rid himself of the god of lies and mischief; Loki had to give Odin that, but Loki was never one for going along with other's plans nor was he one for giving up.

A faint smile crossed Loki face at this point; it was simply a game with his both his sanity and health on the line; the odds were against him, but that was always how it has been. Now the stakes were only his to pay. If he was captured by the chitauri once again, he would be the only one suffering rather than the Avengers or anyone in Asgard; each and every one of them would probably celebrate with as much vigor as they did after his fall. If he managed to gain his powers back by playing Thor, he might be able to escape to some realm in which no one knew of his treachery because _he_ would never return to Asgard. Loki's eyes closed as he replayed the image the Other implanted in his mind of the halls of Asgard in celebration with his absence; it wasn't a image easily forgotten. He let the smirk of a smile to slip of his face; no one was here, ergo, there was no one to pretend for.

Loki opened his green eyes to examine the sight placed behind the couch; the large windows were something Loki had neglected to look through mostly due to the memories the damaged city left in his thoughts. It wasn't so long after the attack and his failure so naturally all the scars on the city remained. Loki moved from his comfortable spot on Stark's couch to walk right up to the clear of clear Midgardian glass.

It was such a strange sight; the view from Stark's tower was impressive to say the least. He could see the city with clear detail along with the small figures of the mortals on the ground. Loki's attention was fixated on other things though; it was the ruined skeletons of the felled buildings that captured his attention. They lain broken from the foundations and Midgardians scuttled around on the ground, using their many machines to sift through the wreckage.

Loki came to a realization from view; the mortals were just as adaptable as the ants he had compared them with. No matter how many boots collapsed their precious homes of dirt; the ants always had found a way to rebuild and easy. The mortals were the same and Loki admired them slightly for that. They had no defense against others but after attacks they were able to get over it, rebuild and pick themselves up to where they had been left.

Loki was mesmerized by the world, it wasn't something he enjoyed and watched when he was planning his attack. During that time, he was trapped in the enemy's pathetic and ineffective cage, directing his minions and fighting. His thoughts were only on domination and the threats hanging over his head. It was true to what he had said before during his short reign of Asgard; he didn't want to rule, Loki just wanted to escape the suffocating shadow of the golden prince of Asgard. He recalled the first time the Other proposed his plan and how he denied it without a second thought _even _with the instability in his mind and body that were caused from his time in the void. The Other's addictive words and means of _persuasion_ had eventually convinced his weakened mind to go along with their plans.

He stopped the progress of the unpleasant thoughts were losing himself to the outside world. Loki's peace was not to last, as an especially unwanted voice pierced the air. "Enjoying the view? It looked more impressive around a month ago." Loki didn't answer but that didn't stop the mortal's tongue. "You're nothing but a diva, Reindeer Games." It was the one person who Loki would want to be alone in a room with; to be honest, he would rather have another round with Fury than to be repeatedly mocked by Stark.

"I don't get either of your references Stark," Loki didn't even look at Stark he spoke.

"Yes of course, you're from Ass-gard." Loki didn't rise to his bait simply due to the fact he wasn't one of Asgard, he wasn't Asgardian and he no longer considered a prince; he would let the mortal be pummeled by the blonde brute if he uses such a disrespectful term in the presence of the golden prince. Seeing Loki wasn't going to answer, Stark made his way to the bar placed against one of the walls. It was fairly predictable; what Loki knew of the mortal was that Stark was commonly engaged in the drinking of the Midgardian form of ale. Loki turned his head slightly toward Stark as he heard the sound of pouring liquid.

"I suppose you want that drink now Reindeer games?" Starks voice was still annoying but Loki was curious of what the Midgardian's intoxicating liquid tasted like; Clint in his enslavement mentioned it more than once.

The intoxicating drinks in Asgard were not things Loki was ever fond of, mostly due to his memories of going into taverns across realms in the presence of Thor. It was never pleasant have tipsy, beefy warriors that were convinced Loki was female even when he held his male form, all because he lacked the obvious muscle definition of the average brute; trying to seduce him with slurred, clumsy words and foul alcohol laden breath. Loki also remembered the many bar fights that the young Thor would start. But, Loki decided that Stark should be able to control himself due to the fact he always drank.

Loki made his way to Stark's location at the bar as he spoke, "I suppose I'll try it." Loki was still very cautious with the mortal; he took a seat at the farthest stool from where Stark was standing. Loki could still fell the burns on his body and since the mortal know knew how to activation it, it would be quite easy for Loki to gain more. Stark seemed to understand Loki's carefulness with him and the mortal passed it off with the slight glimmer of guilty and pity in his dark coloured eyes. The pity Loki could do without, but the green eyed demi-god couldn't understand the presence of guilt in the mortal's eyes. It was weakness to sympathize with enemies because it would just be so easy for that said enemy to exploit it in a future battle.

It was quiet as Stark poured some of the amber liquid from the same bottle he used for his own and from a separate machine he added iced cubes to the clear cups. He set the glass upon the table in front of Loki, not even trying to prevent the loud clash of the two solids. Loki cautiously reached for the cup after Stark once again moved away to his previous position a few steps away from the dark haired demi-god. Stark drank the contents of the cup in only a few gulps. Loki's hand snatched the glass from the table quickly but he didn't drink it; like an overly careful and caution deer, he stared at the alien amber liquid. It gave off a strong scent and it burned his nose slightly, but that was a shared characteristic between the Midgardian alcohol and the Asgardian variety.

Loki took a sip of the liquid just to test it; it wasn't completely horrible, but Loki still did not like it. It was too strong and Loki's face shown that, as his nose wrinkled in distaste. Stark seemed to be humored by Loki expression and even more so when the mortal gained a dirty look from the demi-god.

"Don't you have something less… overpowering?" Loki asked in a blank tone.

"So something with less alcohol; because you can't handle it? Coming right up!" The despicable mortal's face broke into a grin and Loki answered with a hiss.

"I can handle any variant of your pathetic Midgardian drink, mortal!"

Stark started to grin as the demi-god seemed to grow more and more irritated with him; at least an aggressive Loki make all of the guilt Stark was feeling disappear. "Then why don't you have some stronger stuff?"

"I can drink any amount of your alcohol mortal."

"Then why don't we see if you can out drink me?" Stark had his smug smile on his face as he realized he cornered Loki. It was a challenge that had been issued and Loki wasn't one to back down.

"Fine."

**Author's Note: In celebration of 100 alerts, I'll let you guys decide how the next chapter starts. Who should win the drinking contest? Loki or Tony? Please review with your choice but don't review with only one of their names please. **


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Note: Sorry guys, a short chapter for this week. Schoolwork has really been picking up, my spare time is getting a bit sparse and I'm starting to get sick. Its almost to being exactly half of what I usally write for a chapter. **

**Thank you for such a positive response on my last chapter. Almost everyone voting for a certain character to win, so here is the short chapter based on that. I hope you guys enjoy it. **

**********Please leave a review behind after reading, each little comment makes me want to continue writing and they may bring the next update sooner. ^^**

**_Disclaimer: I do not own The Avengers. _**

* * *

It was a long battle of wills and determination but the winner was decided, due to the fact that Jotun's seemed to easily hold liquor with a much higher tolerance. The victor was rather predicable and easy to see.

Loki smirked as he stared at the bested mortal; it was comical in more ways than one. The cocky and overconfident Midgardian was reduced to a slouched slobbering mess. Stark was completely passed out; he was face first on the dark coloured wood of his bar table and a quiet snore sounding whispering from his nose. Loki remembered the man was completely sure he would win; unfortunately for him, he didn't. The green eyed demi-god was even still drinking; he quickly grew bored of his game of prodding the unconscious mess set before him, so Loki helped himself to some of the nicer looking liquids in the mortal's cabinets. Loki made a point to only drink the ones which he believed Stark would sorely miss. He used only one glass over the whole time and he took the occasional sip of the now clear liquid in his glass as he stared at his enemy.

The alcohol did not have much of an effect on Loki; it was understandable thought, even with the ventures to taverns in his adventures with the oaf, he rarely even remotely drunk. Looking back, Loki could understand it was probably his Jotun heritage prohibiting a drunken peace.

There still were a few effects even though they were all minor. The strongest effect from the loud quantities of alcohol he consumed was a low buzzing in his head. Of course there were still other smaller annoyances, for example, the headache that settled in his temple and the awful after taste that had been left in his mouth. It wasn't much compared to the state of Stark; it just strengthened Loki's belief that he was superior to humans.

There was another outcome left to him by the alcohol though; it was extremely unexpected. It was as if his senses sharpened, and with that, he could feel the absence of control on his magic even more unsettling. _Things were often appreciated more once they were gone_, that one thought went through his head with a bitter note.

It felt simply as something was missing; his magic was the one key thing that really made him… well him. Loki remembered the first calls of his inner magic when he was nothing more than a youth; it continued being with him, a part of him, even thought he was forsaken by everyone and everything else. It was a constant and never left him nor betrayed him. If he would personify it, Loki would call it his one true ally and kin. It was a strange feeling to feel what wasn't there; it wasn't at all a desirable feeling though, and it came with more problems.

A strong feeling depression seemed to be one of the reactions to the intake of the Midgardian drink, and for once, he didn't feel as if he was up to the task of forcing the emotions away. It felt like a suffocating ball of emotions settled in his chest. His attention faded from his surroundings as he delved into his thoughts; everyone of them just made him feel even more depressed especially once he came to one sobering conclusion.

He was really nothing without his magic; he had no control over the surroundings and no threats to make. If his enemies would see that basic fact, he would be done, and depending on nothing more than the promises made by both Thor and the All-father. He, once again, would be nothing more than a bargaining tool of Odin. That one fleeting aspiration caused Loki grip to tighten on his glass.

"Ugggg." A low moan rippled from the mortal's throat and Loki's attention shot toward the mortal; much to Loki's displeasure the despicable man was awakening. The man's head went up slowly and he opened his dark brown eyes. By the unfocused and slightly glazed over effect on his eyes, Loki assumed that the effects of the drinks were not to disappear after a quick cat-nap. It was unpleasant and nice at the same time; Stark in his normal state of mind was infuriating and talkative, it would be a gift if he would give his tongue a rest for once. The downside would be that the alcohol might take time to get out of Loki's system as well; to be honest, Loki didn't feel the charming affect of alcohol on his system that Stark seemed to savor; it was more annoying than pleasurable.

"Low-keeeyyy. Where have you been?" The mortal's words were slurred and spoken with drunken glee.

"I've been here the whole time." Loki's spoke with his attention already fading from the intoxicated mortal.

"Wazzzzzzzup!"

"What?" Loki couldn't comprehend Stark's gibberish. He was wrong, a drunken Stark was still as bothersome as his normal state; at least that Stark was able to keep up a good verbal battle while the current one just spurted out nothing but nonsense.

"Lok-lok-lok-lok-kiiii. Lok-lok-" Loki stopped the mortal before he could continue the repetition of his name.

"Stark." Loki's tone was curt and frustrated.

"Lo-lokkiii! Are you r-rr-r-r-r-eeeeeaall-"

"Stop you're gibberish, mortal." Loki snapped as he grew tired of Stark's stuttering.

"-lllyy adopted?"

At this point Loki just froze up with surprise; he didn't expect anything other than mindless gobbledygook from Stark in his current state. _This_ Stark seemed fairly bold, but in this case, such _boldness_ would only be regarded as stupidity in the long run. Loki's scowl began to turn into a snarl. Of course the blonde oaf would tell them; he probably did it so that they didn't believe such a _monstrosity_ could share his blood. Loki's mouth curled into a snarl, but Stark, being in his current state of foolishness, seemed to have no plan to stop.

"You don't treet him as a brother." Tony still continued in his language of drunken slurs and stumbles; without even an answer from the demi-god.

"Because he isn't," Loki's answer was quick, and it lacked the persuasive edge Loki said his words with. The green eyed demi-god still managed to keep his voice level even thought he was seething inside. Tony's intoxicated mind didn't seem to be capable of staying on a topic for long nor did he make the connection that anger plus a god of chaos would equal- nothing good.

"Lo-lo-lo-lo-"

"What now!?"

"Wazzzup!"

* * *

Loki was done. He had tried leaving the mortal behind but the mortal always found him; stumbling and tripping at every turn. Loki assumed that the disembodied voice of the tower had given its master the demi-god's location on each encounter. Loki wondered if the AI was programmed to understand the mangled words of intoxication because Loki couldn't even made them out very well.

It also worked in Starks favor that he knew the tower through and through. It was horribly frustrating to constantly hear Stark's gibberish and not be able to escape it. The intoxicated Stark seemed to want to constantly be in his presence and Loki really didn't need another shadow. Loki wanted nothing more than to throw the insufferable mortal out the window once again. But Loki did still retain his rational mind, unlike Stark; it wasn't a good choice of plan if he wanted to manipulate his enemies in believing he was 'reformed.' That, and Loki really didn't want to go back to Asgard in that blasted muzzle once again to sit in a prison for the next few millennia.

Stark wouldn't stop chattering Loki even used several tasteless words he had picked up from his mind puppets on his last visit, in attempt to silence the mortal. It didn't work; so it continued to be a constant chorus of both his name and several other types of Midgardian slang. Even in his drunken state, the man still continued to love the sound of his own voice; at this point Loki had grown to simply ignoring the mortal entirely. It was a valid course of action, but the desire to throw the man out one of his large window walls, still remained.

How could the heroes deal with this _imbecile_? Loki was surprised that anyone could work with Stark; he was loud, he was obnoxious and he just can't _shut up!_ Loki rubbed his temple; his headache had grown since Stark first awakened for some quite obvious reasons. He could just imagine still feeling the urge to kill him even if he was one of his _allies_. Loki could also imagine Stark demeaning the soldiers rule over the team with his unserious and teasing words to the point the others would want to throw him out a window as well. The soldier didn't seem like a man who would take such insubordination. With that thought, an idea started to form in Loki's head; his scowl slowly turned into a smirk. His thoughts were far from watching over the stumbling Stark and the said man being dragged away by a dark figure from the position he passed out on the floor on. Loki didn't even notice the lack of the drunken man's presence.

"Jarvis please give me the location of the soldier," Loki spoke loudly as if the AI was hard of hearing.

"Mr. Rogers is currently aiding the S.H.I.E.L.D agents in clearing the area in which was attacked." Jarvis's tone was as clear and emotionless as it always has been; Loki seemed to be content with the AI's answer as he continued to stalk down the hall toward his goal. He no longer nor ever wanted to play Stark's nurse maid so what better way to rid himself of him by giving the drunken man to the mother hen of the Avengers. Loki imaged the captain's face as he saw the wreak Stark had drunk himself into. Loki gave a backwards glance after he realized there was an almost ominous silence.

His emerald eyes scanned the lit hallway with the slightest touch of suspicion, he didn't expect the bothersome mortal to ever leave him be. Loki gave a slight sigh; he was actually looking forward for the idiot to be chewed out by his leader. Loki decided to still go ahead; he could probably still gain entertainment from the captain searching the tower for an intoxicated Iron Man and maybe he could acquire some Midgardian remedy for his growing headache.

A dark human-like figure seemed to move from the shadow as Loki looked away once again. The green eyed demi-god was completely focused on the task at hand with his uttermost attention; so naturally, he didn't notice the person clocked in tight black clothes advancing on him with almost silent movement.

The dark suited person seemed to reach for their side to unsheathe some sort of small weapon; it had rather intricate details of different patterns and runes and its appearance was knife-like in nature, but something off about it was that it _glowed_. It glowed a faint blue.

* * *

**Author's Note: Another cliffhanger. ^^ And for drunk Tony, all the spelling mistakes are completely intentional so no comments on that. **


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's Note: You guys must be tired of sorrys by now but heres another one. **

**I'm sorry guys, school been geting so much worst and taking up all my time with so many homework assignments. I have art homework, art projects, a novel study with a giant work book and of course, school taking up all my time. It doesn't help that I also tend to procrastinate. ^^' Yeah... Well, thats life I guess. I should really be getting my homework done rather than writing fanfiction... but I really don't want to do it. So it will most likely be done all last minute. XD**

**So yeah, another shorter chapter but it is longer than the last one. Please excuse the mistakes in this certain chapter; I don't think I caught all of them due to overtiredness. (Its nearing 3am and I've been working on this since 12) **

**********I'm beating around the bush a lot, but more Avengers are planned to come in next chapter. ^^**

**********Thank you for each review, alert and favorite! Each one means a lot to me, its you guys that make me want to continue writing just for the perposed of recreation. ^^**

**_Disclaimer: I do not own The Avengers. _**

* * *

The figure moved toward Loki; some may even say it pounced. At this time Loki seemed to feel something amiss and he turned. As he came to the realization about the figure's ill intent, the shadow lunged out with its knife like weapon. Loki's eyes were not focused on the covered face of his adversary; they were settled upon the unearthly glow of the weapon.

The blue was familiar; too familiar. It glimmered with the same radiance of his former abiotic partner in crime; his staff. Loki magical spidey senses still were as keen as when the magic danced freely in his veins; the strongest magic he could feel from the being was the blade. It told him that it wasn't a fake. It couldn't possibly be his original staff, because Loki knew that either one of the two factions that went against him, took it as a spoil of war. But, of course it was possible that multiple weapons had been forged and has bathed in the tesseract's power. That was fairly likely, he doubted that he the Other would grant him the staff if it was the only one of its kind.

Loki's eyes moved to the form of his adversary. The face was completely covered by fabric, so no information was given on that end. So Loki's emerald eyes moved to examine the rest of it while attempting to dodge its relentless attacks. The thing was completely shrouded in some sort of tight black fabric, so it was quite easy to examine its body shape. It was humanoid; it had two arms and two legs, but Loki still assumed it could be anything, because after all, he had made many enemies over millennia. But of course Loki assumed that the most likely possibility that it one of the species that had a simple goal of torturing him to madness.

It was fast, and by the accuracy of one of its blows with its unarmed appendage; Loki could tell that it was strong. It wasn't long before the hand/claw/paw/thing holding the knife managed to land a hit. Loki attempted avoid the slashes of his unknown enemy; but something he had not noticed as one of the effects of the alcohol hindered him. He moved at an almost human pace. It would be fine against any sort of weak mortal, but by the grace and speed of Loki's advisory; Loki could easily tell that wouldn't be the case for this certain being. If Loki was fighting fit as he was before the fall, he would be able to surpass its speed with ease, while launching a few throwing knife into its heart; if it even had one. But Loki was far from that level of health, so all he could do was attempt not to get his throat slashed open.

Loki let out a mix between a snarl and a hiss when the sharp blade ripped open the fabric of Stark stolen shirt at the chest. The knife cleaved through the cotton easily and it left a path of red in its wake. The wound wasn't to the point of being fatal, but it still dripped chrisom, ruining Stark's shirt even more. If Loki wasn't trying to escape being hacked to death, he would had probably found it quite funny, he had planned on wreaking Stark's 'Black Sabbath' shirt at some point, but he had wanted to do it by his own terms and for it not to be at his expense.

Loki was not fighting on offence at all; he knew when it was a time to fight and when it was not. He saw the strength of his foe, and he didn't want to test it or even give them a chance to try themselves against a god. Every movement he made was one with the purpose of escape. Mentally he was cursing toward Stark and his so called 'superior technology.' It really didn't help against invaders much at all.

His thoughts were interrupted as a heavy blow landed on his side. The _thing's_ leg managed to find an opening in Loki's defenses and it met its mark at his ribs, the leg positioned in such a way a human's anatomy wouldn't allow. Loki gave pained gasp, but he quickly covered up the opening. He would be lying if he said it didn't hurt, but if he gave the alien being another chance, he presumed it would hurt so much more.

Still retaining the defensive movements, he opened his mouth to speak. "Jarvis?!" Loki memorized the automations name by listening to Stark's constant rambling. He wasn't surprised to hear nothing in response from the disembodied voice, but instead a raspy, nonhuman voice answered him.

"How pathetic can one sssink to plead for help from the Midgardianssss," Any 'S' that came from the unknown being's mouth were stretched out. The voice sounded somewhat feminine, by Loki's experienced ear; if listened to a human's ear, it would count as barely comprehensible and raspy, missed with the constant change of pitch.

Loki didn't grace the shadowy creature with an answer. Just by that one statement Loki guessed who it was with ease. The _chitauri_: how predicable. Something was different about this one though; it fought with fluent movement and a certain grace and experience. It wasn't the same breed as the imbeciles who met their end at the hands of the heroes. It seemed to be more evolved than the others; it went upon the level of comparing humans to monkeys. Loki wouldn't be surprised if this was one of their generals; a variation of chitauri that was just as competent as the Other. The green eyed god made it a priority to lead this certain chitauri for the Avenger's to deal with because in interest of his well-being, it was not a fight in his favor.

From his previous explorations of the halls, Loki knew the layout of Shark's tower better than his foe, but it didn't help as he was the one being driven down the halls. Loki had to spend all of his focus relying on his experience as a _warrior_ to not get backed into a corner. At least, that was it appeared to be. Loki knew that the solider was just rooms away and that he was currently occupying it, or he _was,_ around an hour or so ago when Stark grew more obnoxious and annoying with his alcohol. Stark carried out a conversation with the captain in his drunken language of slurs and inappropriate (Rogers found them that way, but Loki found them both entertaining and informative) topics through Jarvis's all-reaching voice.

It wasn't really the time or place to get caught up on a train of thought; Loki received a small, shallow slash across chest reminding him of his predicament. The deadly dance continued with the same pace; the chitauri continued to have the upper hand and Loki kept to the defensive; both of them had a nonhuman supply of endurance. Finally they were somewhere near the soldiers door; Loki could feel a tiny spark of triumph rise up, but he quenched it because he may have the chitauri in a check, but it was not yet a check mate.

Loki didn't like the next step in his plan in the slightest, but he needed to play on the Avenger's weakness, compassion; to get himself out of this certain undesirable situation. Pride was a major factor in Loki's decisions, but he was not stupid enough to give his life or anything else with importance for such a thing. He wasn't _Thor._

Loki let loose a moderately loud, pitiful, pained false whimper; from many decades of practice Loki knew it sounded legitimate from past results. Unfortunately, the response from the chitauri was far from Loki's predicted guess. The greened eyed god expected the thing to laugh at him in a series of non-humanoid chitters, and then insult him for being pathetic and weak. At least that what one of the mindless chitauri foot soldiers would do. This was not a foot soldier.

The humanoid beast seemed to disappear into the shadows once again, but the illusion wasn't effect on Loki's hawk like vision and keen notice of details. The chitauri simply shape-shifted into matching the background. Loki lunged at the place, but his hands met nothing, it seemed to have already slunk away. It didn't finish the job from that small sliver of a chance it could fail. It definitely wasn't a foot soldier. After that failed attempt, green eyes were filled with both surprise and dread as he stared at the place that was once occupied by another. The rumors were true.

Some of the stories told about the race know as the chitauri were known all across the realms; was that they were shape shifters and they retained the ability to change into anything and anyone along with the ability to blend into the surroundings like the Midgardian beast called a chameleon. Of course the chitauri didn't just change colours, it was said they would just vanish. But rumors also just say that certain ability was just gained by a form of cloaking device that they created. But... if one rumor was true, what about the other? Loki recalled the shape of the chitauri from before, it seemed almost _human_. Maybe that is how they are able to hide in Midgard without causing complete panic.

That rumor had grown to be more than a story. It was unproven and the trueth was unknown. The unknown created fear. The chitauri weren't awfully powerful, nor were they that aggressive; to Asgard at least; and their colony would be at an end if their mother-ship was compromised, but it was only one terror that left the chitauri being named a nightmarish creatures; it was the one fear that anyone could be an enemy. Allies, lovers, friends, anyone could be a chitauri ready to slip a blade between your ribs at a moment notice. How painful a betrayal for your last glimpse of the world before the end, being of your _own brother_ or even _father_ stabbing you in the back.

The Other seemed to have kept Loki in the dark about this certain key piece of information. It _'might' _have been quite informative during the invasion. That one thought brought Loki's to yet another realization. The drones probably lacked the ability, and the Other probably thought the takeover of Midgard wouldn't need the involvement of the superior forms of the species. Or more likely, the Other didn't find Loki fit to order around its best soldiers. Or, the Other just didn't trust Loki; that one was completely understandable due to the fact Loki shared no love toward the chitauri. And of course there was the fact, Loki had to be highly _convinced_ to become a pawn in their game and who would give a pawn the best pieces to control? That was strictly the king's place to order, but of course each pawn in any game had the potential of being more and rising up to a queen.

Loki's green eyes shot to something the chitauri left behind and he was utterly baffled at what lain on the ground. The lavish tile reflected blue from a pulsating aqua light. The chitauri left the tesseract honed blade. Loki moved slowly and cautiously to pick it up. He prodded multiple times with one of his slender fingers before picking the intricate blade from off the ground. Loki could feel the feel the familiar mind probing effects of the tesseract enter his head. He didn't release the weapon; he actually gripped it tighter, leaning into the calming presence.

The tesseract was temperamental and more unpredictable than any mortal, but Loki welcomed the feel of the slight stream of magic flowing in the glowing weapon. Time seemed to stop as Loki could feel the influence of the weapon. It whispered to him of glory and power with the magic the twitched in the small unknown metal. At this point Loki let his grips loosen; it did him no good to succumb to the tesseract's will. He let it take rein once before, and looking back at what happened to him; it was never a good idea to take suggestions from an unworldly artifact.

The dark haired demi-god's emerald eyes moved to the door of the room where the captain should have been residing. He set his ear against the door and frowned as he heard a muffled bought of snoring. He would have really been in trouble if the chitauri called his bluff. Loki let a smirk cross his face; he was having a fairly good day; not counting the two chitauri attacks; he had beaten Fury in a battle of words, he had out drank Stark to the point of him passing out, and he survived a deadly dance with a powerful foe. He started down the hall with his lasting smirk. Loki still carried the weapon in his hand, but he blocked out the soft trill of the tesseract's magic. He had many years to perfect ignoring irritating things; he had lived with a blonde brute and his idiotic friends for millennia.

* * *

Thor was wandering the house with a few boxes of pop tarts at hand; crumbs remained stuck his beard as he wolfed down the toaster pastries. The director was to arrive within a short time, if the time keeper was to be proven truthful. Thor hoped that his brother wouldn't bring the director to the point of matching his name in emotion because Thor didn't want Loki to be dragged down to the Shield headquarters to sit in a cage for a long period of time.

The thought was rather depressing, but Thor thought his follow heroes were warming up to the clever green eyed god. The captain was trying to the best of his ability to get Loki to be at peace in the tower, while Loki and the man of iron were alike in so many ways; Thor could easily tell that they might become friendly from their similarities. They even were drinking together at the current time and the man of iron trusted Loki to the point of getting intoxicated around him, even though the whole event was brought upon by juvenile competition. It would make everything so much easier if Loki started to understand that mortals were rather interesting beings.

Thor walk through the halls turned upon a darker theme as he noticed certain Tony Stark across from him, passed out on the ground. Thor assumed that Loki out drank the mortal with ease; Thor never knew an occasion where Loki was absolutely drunk and if his brother ever had, Thor most likely missed it because he was always the one to pass out first. The thought made Thor smile; he made a note in his head to convince Loki to have a drink with him. They could partake in the tasting of Midgardian drinks. He moved over to the man of iron quickly; it might be nicer to for him to wake up in a bed rather than the floor for once and Thor thought he owned the mortal at least that, since he attempted to be moderately friendly to his brother.

Thor bended down in order to heft the man of iron upwards, but he stopped as soon as he saw the red puddle. With horror Thor's blue eyes moved to Stark's chest area to see wounds in which Thor could tell were inflicted with a knife, Loki's favorite weapon.

* * *

**Author's Note:** **Another cliff hanger. XD I'm getting pretty good at these.**

**The shape-shifting chitauri come from my research for writing of looking at the chitauri wiki page. In the comics they were labled as shape-shifters that often took the forms of humans and the higher up ones were powerful, even powerful enough to fight the hulk. In the movie they were far from that, so instead in this story you get some elite chitauri following the orignal comic slightly. ^^ I barely read any of the comics, so they will not be right on the dot. (I have read many Ultimate Spider-man's but I haven't read many Avenger themed ones)**


	12. Chapter 12

**Author's Note: I planned to post last week, but I got sick and missed school for the whole week. When I got back I had so much homework to finish so no time for writing. XD But, I'm done most of the work now so I'm posting a rather short chapter. (But, I'm going to try to get the next chapter out sometime this week)**

**Currently I'm working on four stories and only two are out. XD I don't think I'll be posting the non-posted two up before I finish them. (Then I could get weekly updates out every week!) **

**********Thank you for each review, alert and favorite! Each one means a lot to me, its you guys that make me want to continue writing just for the purpose of recreation. ^^**

**_Disclaimer: I do not own The Avengers. _**

* * *

Fury was done with this shit. There were complaints from the Avengers every hour; he tried blocking them, but Stark's Jarvis managed to get through every time. Since they were currently on 'house arrest' the Avengers were not allowed to leave. So of course, SHIELD, aka Director Fury had to deal with their whims and whines.

It was always Stark being the messenger; Fury didn't know if that was because the man liked pissing people off, or he was the only one able to use a phone. Either option could be taken as the human race having no hope, since all of their _super heroes_ had major issues; Thor was a god that didn't understand that demanding stuff and breaking things wasn't an activity encouraged among humans. Steve was man out of time who was having a hard time adapting into the new world. The Hulk was uncontrollable and had a habit of causing property damage wherever he went. And of course there was Tony Stark; he was a total ass who found it fun to rile up the press, the villains and even his own team.

Fury had faith in them for dealing with serious threats, but for an everyday crime, they would probably ruin more things than they fixed; they were not like that Spider-man kid. (At least the Spider-brat had enough sense not to blow everything up!)

Fury's phoned rang once again and Fury picked it up. "Furrrry! Wazzzup!" There was a short pause as Stark said something to another occupant in the room. "Lo-key! Give me the Cheetos!" _Great_, Stark was drinking even though undesirable number one found refuge in his house.

"We ran out of them a few minutes ago mortal, remember? Your fingers are still covered with the orange dust." Fury cheered up a bit after he heard Loki spit out words at Stark with irritation, at least he wasn't the only one being bothered by the billionaire.

"Bring me cheezies, furrrrry! The crunchee ones, not thhhe squishy ones." Fury could only wonder what kind of cheetos Stark was eating for them to be 'squishy', as he hung up on the drunkard. Having a super villain in the house did not seem to affect Stark's drinking habits, but at least Fury returned to the house, Stark wouldn't raise Fury's blood pressure higher with his never stopping mouth. If Fury was lucky, the man would pass out before the visit; out of any of 'heroes' Stark was the most irritating.

* * *

Loki was tapping on the wall obsessively as he walked. Fury was due to arrive soon if the manmade time keeper proved true, but that wasn't what made the dark haired demi-god fidgety. It was the silence and the aspect of another attack.

It could quite easily happen again; the chitauri proved itself to be able to slip past the mortal's defenses with ease. Loki knew the chitauri planned to take him alive, but if that wasn't the case, Loki knew he would have a knife in his ribs hours ago and bleeding out on Stark's floor.

But, of course the silence was the most unnerving. Due his habit of pacing, he had traveled around the halls and he hadn't seen a soul. Jarvis didn't even respond due to the chitauri turning the disembodied voice off and it was surprising not to hear the obnoxious voice of Stark and the pointlessly loud tone of his bro- Thor.

The chitauri could have taken _care_ of them… A small amount of worry made an appearance in Loki's chest, but it was forced down with some denial. He did not _care_ about his jailers.

To force down the unwanted emotion he admired the blade in his hand once again; it was a fantastic piece, but of course any magically made weapon was superior to the dead metals of Midgard. With regret Loki knew that Fury would demand for the weapon once Loki mocked Stark with the lack of effectiveness of his 'Jarvis.' He could hide it so he retrieve it once he regained his powers, but there was no proof that he simply didn't slash at his/Stark shirt with kitchen knives to look as if he was in mortal peril; those mortal's always focused on his nickname of the god of _lies _rather than listening to the truth.

Around his fourth way past the big clock with the roman numerals (Something that Loki knew from past ventures to Midgard) he saw that that there was ten minutes to the time when Fury was to arrive. Loki doubted the man to be late for an appointment he set (Fury _wasn't_ Stark) so he made his way to the stairs. He moved down the stairs with a dramatic and slow walk; he wasn't one to be on time for meetings either. He believed the Midgardian term for this was 'Fashionably late.'

There were a few flights of stairs to go down, but he continued his fabulous walk the whole time with one hand sliding down the rails and the other lazily holding the magic bathed dagger. He stepped out of the stair well and started to move to the ground level floor's entertainment room. He cut through the kitchen when he started to hear part of a loud and angry conversation. He gave a sigh of relief; his jailers/meat-shields were still there and they weren't murdered by the assassin chitauri.

"Open your eyes Thor! He's a psychopath! Stop protecting him! He gave up his chance." It was Fury's voice and he was pretty much yelling; his voice was filled with the very emotion he was named after.

"He wouldn't be so… direct." That was Thor; he was quieter for once. That put Loki on edge, just like Odin, once the conversation strayed to be given in a normal tone it meant something serious.

"I think attacking Earth with a fucking army of aliens _is_ direct Thor." It was a new voice; well, not a new one, but one that Loki hadn't heard for a while. Clint Barton.

"In Asgard he never liked getting his-"

"The Loki you know is gone Thor. Whatever he was as a child, he isn't now." That was Natasha's; the black widow's voice. Loki gnawed his lip slightly at the hostile tone directed toward him, but continuing listening in; he wanted to hear what he was being accused of.

"But-"

"He has lost his mind Thor, now he is one bag-of-cats crazy motherfu-" Clint again.

"Don't talk about my bro-"

"Not your brother." Loki let that one slip as a force of habit; he realized his mistake only after the words rolled off his tongue.

For this one time, Thor didn't continue the false title; instead everything went to hell.

The Avenger's were as passive as they usually were with Loki, (Angry, hate-filled glares and hands straying to weapons) but when their eyes settled on the pulsating blue knife casually relaxed in his hand they reacted.

Fury pulled out a gun from under his long black jacket, Clint removed his bow from the rested position on his back and Natasha took out a pair of twin guns. Thor wielded his hammer and had an expression of both anger and betrayal in his eyes. Loki didn't react, he just stared down the barrels the guns being pointed at him, and he didn't move either; several bullets and an arrow (Possibly explosive) might not kill him, but it would be extremely unpleasant. He kept a poker face; it pissed off some of his more aggressive enemies, but at least it didn't give them reason to shoot him.

Clint yelled with fury radiating from his voice; Loki could easily tell he wanted to let the arrow fly. "Let's see if you can do in _all_ of us, just like Tony!" Loki let his poker face slip off his face in surprise; he can't believe he didn't notice it before that the loud mouth was absent. Could the chitauri gotten to him? If that was the case, it was Loki's fault in a way; the drunken idiot was following him like a hatchling to its mother so he was probably the first target.

"Don't fuck with us Loki. We know you did it." Clint hissed out.

"I don't know what your-" Loki spoke in his cool tone trying to shake off the initial surprise and worry he felt for the mortal.

"You have a knife in your hand Loki." Natasha kept her tone emotionless, but Loki could see the anger in her eyes; it was surprising, but the dysfunctional group of misfits seemed to have grown closer during his absence.

"My adversary left it behind, it must have taken care of Stark before attacking me." That sentence didn't really seem to help Loki's position. Loki started to regret not leaving behind the artifact, but the feel of magic was addictive.

"You're the god of fucking _lies_. Why should we believe when all the evidence point to-"

Clint was busy ranting about something and Loki wasn't listening. His attention was on Fury; the man was staring intently at Loki or something over his shoulder. Loki turned around to see what it was, but then a good amount of force hit the back of his head causing the magically forged knife to the ground with a clatter.

Any human would be on the ground with a concussion, but Loki took it like a champ. The green eyed demi-god just rubbed the back of his head, trying to stop the slight dizziness that started up.

He turned around to see Captain America with a cold expression on his face and his shield in his hand. It was surprising to see him like this again, since the captain was the most civil and the most _friendly _compared to all the other heroes. "Why purpose did that serve?" Loki's tone was laced with annoyance.

"You almost killed Tony." The captain exclaimed; Loki was grateful the 'almost' was present in the sentence.

Loki's tone moved from simple annoyance to anger. "I already stated that was not of my doing. Stark's security system _failed_ and let the enemy in without any resistance. And if your purpose was to knock me out with a simple blow to the head, I doubt any _pathetic_ mortal would be able-" Loki was interrupted as Fury withdrawn a small yellow accented gun and shot the buzzing cable at Loki.

Thor backed away as he saw the buzzing weapon; the god of thunder wasn't fond of them in the slightest. Fury gave smirk as he spoke to Thor. "I heard from Miss Foster that gods are especially susceptible to tasers."

Loki collapsed on the ground with the lightning coursing through his veins; causing his muscles to contract and be rendered useless for the current time. Loki just waited for it to be over; it wasn't the first time he suffered from electricity and the electricity released was a weak imitation compared to the lightning of Thor's wrath.

(To be honest, Thor electrifying his hand, Loki's hair, Loki and everything else was probably the **only** successful _prank_ the blonde brute carried out. Of course lightning strikes were also common when Thor got angry as well. When they were children, everything Loki wore or owned was static-y for a great amount of time from Thor's rage after Loki cut Sif's golden hair and then replaced it with black.)

Even though he was familiar to the feeling, he was helpless to rid himself of the effects. Fury pulled out a second item from his trench coat, it was pointed and the insides of the pointed glass were filled with some sort of liquid. With a stab in the god's arm from Fury; Loki could feel the pressure as the liquid entered his bloodstream. Loki assumed whatever it was, it wasn't good.

The strength of manmade lightning was fading, but Loki felt weaker. It was definitely due to whatever drug was in that syringe, because had the ability to bounce back from electric attacks better than even the god of thunder. Fury was barking out orders and Thor was talking; but Loki couldn't seem to focus; his usually sharp senses were fading until finally he fell into a state of unconsciousness.


	13. Chapter 13

**Author's Note: Sorry guys, I just lost my muse for months. I no longer had a art-block, but instead I got writers block. XD **

**I plan to do the next update this week. Last week I sat down and planned out the story to the end. So I now I know how the story will go and follow it; I no longer have the excuse of having no idea what to do next. **

**I decided that chapters will be shorter now so I can do more frequent updates. Now chapters will be 1.5K to 2K. **

**Thank you for each review, alert and favorite! Each one means a lot to me, its you guys that make me want to continue writing. **

**_Disclaimer: I do not own The Avengers. _**

* * *

To say Loki felt gross was an understatement; he felt as if he was met a particularly vengeful fire giant. He opened his eyes and let them wander since he seemed currently incapable to move his neck. The room was extremely different from the one he was given on the helicarriar; it was an unpleasant white without any outstanding features other than the horribly uncomfortable metal chair the demi-god was in. By the pressure on his arms, legs and neck; Loki assumed he was strapped/tied to the chair. SHIELD didn't seem to be taking any chances.

Loki's careful green eyes scanned over the room once again (Because, naturally there wasn't much else to do.) The walls had a flawless appearance to the eye trained eye, but Loki managed to pick out a few brief indentations in the wall that he took as being an entrance. Loki's suspicions were proven correct as that section of the wall slid open to reveal a scowling one eyed man, a hate filled expression from a hawk and partially masked hate simmering on the face of the spider. Loki met their entrance with clearing his face of emotions.

"Looks like the fucker woke up." Barton's tone suggested that he thought Loki as the perpetrator of the crimes.

Natasha was silent, but Loki could tell she thought him to be at blame as well. "Stand down Agent." Fury's voice carried authority and anger. The Director thought him to be at fault just like everyone else. Three for three.

"Why? It would be so much better if I just slit this bastard's throat. Do you really think he'll ever change? Thor would believe any lie that comes out of his mouth and we'll be right at square one." Loki watched Barton grow more and more agitated. The human was right with his last statement; if Loki sucked back his pride he could probably manipulate Thor; but of course if he did tat; Loki would be forfeiting the human's free protection. They were beyond irritating; but when they were being butchered by _him_; Loki could slip away… probably.

"That may be so Agent; but if you carry out your vendetta we might be looking at war with a powerful extraterrestrial race."

Loki thought of saying something to defend himself, but seeing the humans bicker was informative. (And entertaining.) The humans believed that if they slain him or even if it looked like they slain him; they would be at war with the Asgardians. Loki doubted that would happen; Odin would probably just smite whoever broken the deal rather than carry out a total genocide. (Odin tended to keep the other races weak rather than dead; just to have power, a far greater kingdom and the ability to flaunt Asgardian superiority without the other races being able to defend themselves.)

Barton grumbled angrily and then was quiet; Fury started to speak to Loki. "Why did you attack Stark?" The director's tone suggested that that was a rhetorical question since he already believed Loki committed the crime.

"I did not attack Stark."

Natasha whispered something into Fury's ear after Loki's response. Thanks to his _god _like hearing; he picked out words. "I…no tells…ask…other." And thanks to his clever mind, he translated it to 'I don't know. He has no tells. Ask him another.'

"Where did you get the knife?"

"The attacker left it." Loki decided to go with honesty for once because the bindings holding his head to the chair were starting to give him a sore neck.

"Who is this _attacker_?"

"A Chitauri." Loki was really starting to get annoyed; drinking a massive amount of Midgardian alcohol, fighting a hostile alien and getting tased; was really wearing Loki's patience thin.

"The Chitauri already proved themselves to be less than effective creatures and not very intelligent with their plan of attack simply being 'attack.' Are you telling us Loki that a Chitauri managed to grow more intelligent in the very little time that passed around the time of the attack and now?" Natasha took her time to speak.

"_To be completely honest_; the leader of the Chitauri in the attack did not think of giving me his most powerful warriors or even ones that carried a shred of intelligence."

"He wanted the tesseract enough so to start a war between our two planet and yet the puppet master didn't send his best soldiers!?" Barton spoke up with disbelief decorating his tone.

"Tecnically the Chitauri don't have a realm." After a particularly pissed off glare from Fury; Loki elaborated. "Midgard and its inhabitants always has always been seen as weak ergo; so _he_ thought a small force was enough to take it." Loki bluntly said.

"That was a small force!" Barton exclaimed.

"Millions of mindless drones can easily be manufactured; a clever and powerful force is much more complicated."

"Why hasn't Earth been attacked then if we are so weak?" Fury asked with his irritation showing cleverly.

"Asgard has control over the realms and Midgard is included in the Allfathers lands. It also has a direct path to Asgard and almost all the other realms making it easy to be reclaimed or attacked. The Chitauri live in the branches of Yggdrasil and out of the control of the Allfather or any other being of the nine worlds."

Fury changed the direction of his questioning. "The leader of the aliens may be serious now; but there is nothing for him to gain because the tesseract is now on Asgard."

"I presume _he_ found an alternate energy source. And if he has acquired one; he now seeks to go through with his plan."

"You seem extremely familiar with the leader, Loki." The ever vigilant black widow read the green eyed god.

"I was allied with him; it would be rather unintelligent to know nothing of him." Loki continued being difficult; Loki wasn't keen on getting into the details about his relationship with _him_.

"Damn it Loki! This alien already declared war with us and he's gone after you. In order for us to defend against the hostile forces we need information." Fury's fury was rising.

"What would I get out of it?" Loki said with attention fully focused on Fury for the first time during the interrogation.

Fury seemed slightly surprised to get a straight question from the god of lie's mouth. "You get to live."

Loki sneered, "I currently have immunity on your planet; from the deal _you_ struck. As you said before; you do not want another war on your hands."

"We have ways to get you talk save us the bother of cleaning your blood from the floor." From a brief nod from Fury; Natasha took the lead and went into full interrogation mode.

"Go ahead; let's see if you could get anything of relevance; in my many centuries of life no one has yet." Loki smirked and all of the agents scowled in sync. "I presume you would like to hear my demands?" There was a brief soundless pause.

"Fuck no. You attacked Tony!" Barton continued to lack any sort of control over his temper.

"How many times do I need to say I am not at fault for the wounds Stark received?"

"You had the weapon." Natasha spoke in an emotionless tone.

"I picked it up after the creature attempted to attack me. Don't you see the rough slash marks on my borrowed cloth Midgardian shirt along with the blood stains from my healed wounds?"

"You could have easily have made those yourself." Natasha spoke again.

"Why would I attack Stark?" Loki hissed.

"He used the collar keeping you here on you."

"How do you know that? I doubt any of the Avengers other than your agents trusted you enough to give you daily reports."

"How do you know that?" Fury asked.

"Please, I can read people just as well as Agent Romanov."

"It's none of your concern how we acquired the information. You did have motive against Stark; that and the weapon being in your possession is proof enough." Fury looked smug, thinking he trapped the Silver-tongued god.

"Where would I find an enchanted knife when I have no magic at my disposal pray tell?"

"You-"

"And please don't say that 'I had it before hand' you Avengers were extremely keen on patting me down for weapons when I was captured and the bindings remained for my whole stay in Asgard. Nor did I have outside accomplices because as you see; they are extremely keen on killing me." Loki left out the part in which the Chitauri wanted to take Loki to _him_ rather than killing the green eyed god on the spot. "In the action of striking a deal with a second party isn't in Midgardian customs to treat them with better conditions? I would much rather be chatting in an office with a little less white, while not being strapped to a chair." Loki let his mouth curl into a smirk.

"No, you are currently our pri-"

"Did I mention that is the first of my demands?"

* * *

**Author's Note: This was a very dialogue heavy chapter, the next will be better; Tony is going to wake up. ^^**


	14. Chapter 14

**Author's Note: It's ****2:30 am and I am tired. **

**Another dialogue heavy chapter. **

**To jaquelinelittle: Since you are not longed in as you posted reviews, I thank you for the ideas. I've done a lot of research on the myths, but I haven't done much at all on the old practice in the name of the gods. (I only did a bit of that for my christmas special XD) Chapter One is definitely one that I plan to revice someday. (I am really weak with writing any scene with Odin) ****For the forensic idea; in my headcannon for this story; they are all untrusting of Loki's possible magic (even though it is being suppressed. Its like in the earlier years of Earth in which they blamed everything bad that happened on witches/demons/magic) and Loki is already seen as beyond crafty. Plus they already have prejudice against Loki. (Aka, everyone pointing the finger at him) **

**Thank you for each review, alert and favorite! Each one means a lot to me, its you guys that make me want to continue writing. **

**_Disclaimer: I do not own The Avengers. _**

* * *

It was a short travel to Fury's office afterwards; the anger on both Fury's face and Barton's persisted during entirety of the escorted walk. (They invited an excessive amount of agents to join them) Loki had a grin on the whole entire time; it was almost like his previous stay on the helicarrier; the humans continued to be hostile and they still wanted information (And for his blood to be spilled); but of course this time they were docked and Loki help all the power in the current situation. (He didn't have to depend on the petty mind-controlled humans and the mindless chitauri.)

It was easy to see that Fury did not like the current events and his need to depend on his 'enemy.' It seemed that the Midgardian phrase 'enemy of my enemy is my friend' did not work for the directors current behavior. Within one step into the director's office, Fury broke the hostile silence; "Speak."

Loki raised an eyebrow; he was a prince of two worlds and he was not a domesticated Midgardian beast; no way would such disrespect be met with reward. Loki walked deeper into the room without a second glance at the agents. His destination was the large desk. Rather than taking one of the two (Uncomfortable looking) seats in front of the desk; Loki decided to take the one located behind; a cushioned office chair.

Fury opened his mouth as if to speak, but Loki shushed him. Fury looked like he was about to explode as he took a seat in one of the wheel-less (And uncomfortable looking) chairs. There was one extra chair, but agent Romanoff and Barton had other ideas; they stood on opposite sides of Fury like trained dogs.

"Loki, we aren't here to play your goddamn-"

"Shhhhh." Loki put a finger over his mouth to hush Fury (A very useful Midgardian visual signal he picked up. It was almost as effective as the one that used the middle finger.) And he started speaking softly with his mouth curling into a smirk. "It is customary to talk over subsistence?"

"What. Do. You. What." Fury was seemed to getting close to his breaking point and Loki was enjoying the moment.

"Some juice of apple." Fury hissed something into a small microphone that the previously hidden and within minutes a small nervous looking man come in with a bottle full of the golden liquid. After a few sips; Fury interrupted. "Loki; I swear to god-"

"Don't you mean m-"

"LOKI. Speak now or we will ship you off to Ass-gard on the first chance we get!"

"I believe Thor would quite offended if he heard-"

"LOKI."

Loki raised an eye brow before ridding himself of the previously '_cheerful_' expression. The green eyed god was now in serious mode. "What would you like to know?"

Slightly surprised by Loki's quick change in behavior, Fury paused for a moment to calm down. "Who is the mastermind?"

Any of the SHIELD agents could easily hear the hesitation in Loki's tone; "The Mad Titan."

"Give us a name."

"No-I can't; names are power." Loki was being… different than the irritating Loki of minutes ago.

"We need-"

Loki cut off Fury quickly, "Speak to Thor about those details."

Fury liked this version of Loki even less; he may have been some-what forthcoming with information, but the seemingly fearless, crazed, powerful maniac seemed to be _afraid _of this Mad Titan. The alien laughed in the faces of earth's mightiest heroes, but yet... Loki didn't even want to utter this Titan's name. That was something that unnerved the director. "Well… what does this titan want with Earth; does he have an alternate purpose other than avenging his defeated army?"

At that statement Loki laughed right in Fury's face. "He does not care for the foot soldiers or anyone else for that matter."

"What does he want?" Fury spoke.

"He wants the worlds to burn by his hand and the inhabitants to meet death."

"Why?"

"Why? Why does a lovesick fool beckon a lady with deceased flowers?"

"What?" Confusion was evident on each and every one of the human's faces; if they were not talking about such a draining topic: Loki would have laughed.

"_He_ wishes to woo Death with the death of all the realms."

* * *

Somewhere else in the world (Aka in a SHIELD regulated hospital in New York) a man opened his eyes.

This said man had an immense hang-over, but… that was the norm; Tony Stark liked drinking and hangovers were just a side effect. It was more of the pain that was focused in his chest. It wasn't like the palladium poisoning; that was more like numbness and a pain that came as his heart beat; this current pain was much sharper and it felt as if he had vacation to the knife factory.

Tony's eyes went to examine his chest. He was wearing one of those dreadful hospital gowns; that definitely explained the breezy feeling he had down under. (He only hoped it was a pretty female who changed his cloths rather than a hairy and burly man.) Tony attempted moving his arm to see if there were any bandages underneath the hideous garment when a pain flooded his body. A few whimpers later; the arm was back into the previous place at his side. It seemed like even the smallest movement brought waves of pain.

Tony's brief problem seemed to wake up someone that was sitting on the opposite side; Tony didn't notice him until the blonde man shifted from his chair.

"Tony!" Tony quietly shushed Steve; his hangover did not like the currently loud super-soldier; he could just image his head splitting open if Thor came in with his usual tone.

"You're awake." Steve stated the obvious.

"No shit." Tony was surprised to hear his voice; it was weak, quiet and raspy. Needless to say; Tony did not like it. "Where am I?"

"We had to take you to a hospital; you were badly hurt." At Steve sentence Tony remembered an alcohol blurred scene; dark, silence, blue, red, wet, pain, nothing.

"Hmm… that explains the especially high reading on the I-feel-like-shit meter. So where loud, blonde and muscle-ly and tall, dark and moody?"

"Thor's at the tower-" _Fucccck;_ Tony thought to himself, _I'll need a new __everything__._ "And Loki- well… he has been suspected of doing _this_ to you."

"Loki?" Tony spoke.

"Yes; Loki. He was seen with the weapon."

Tony spoke a word. "No."

"No?" Steve sounded like a parrot.

"It looked like Loki, but it wasn't."

"If it looks like Loki; wouldn't it be Loki?"

"It was dark and I was drunk. I just know it wasn't _human_."

"Loki isn't human."

"Do Loki's eyes reflect light like a cat?" Tony snapped.

"What?"

"It was like they were glowing; that's the main feature I saw of my attacker other than a silhouette in the dark. It was as tall as Loki and it made noises… like the language the chitauri spoke on the cameras of the attack on Loki's room. It was chattering like a squirrel."

"Squirrels?"

"Never heard of a squirrel grandpa?" Tony was getting off topic and irritated right now. Steve was treating him like a slow child and of course there was the fact his chest was cut up and his massive fucking hangover headache was eroding his already low friendliness levels.

"So you do not believe it was Loki?"

"No, I do fucking not. Now give me some pain medication jackass." Tony was getting anger; if he had caught the jolly green giant mutation from radiation he would be terrorizing the city right now. (Probably climbing the empire state building with a pretty bimbo.)

"Fury wanted to get your account of the crime without it being muddled by dru-"

"I gave it to you. Now give me some goddamn painkillers before I kill myself from overexertion by attempting to strangle you." Tony started throwing a bit of a temper tantrum (Having your chest ripped open really made people irrational) at the current time so Steve was quickly escorted out by a doctor. The doctor had no problem with lecturing Steve about working up his patient. After the doctor left; Steve did feel guilty, but orders were orders and Tony wasn't going to get his serenity until Fury heard his account. Fury ordered that Tony would be sent to this certain hospital; mostly because this one was almost completely under SHIELD orders and all the staff were sworn not to reveal information about SHIELD's business. If Fury decided Tony shouldn't get painkillers; he wouldn't.

"Excuse me." Steve stopped a different doctor that just left Tony's room. "How bad is it now?"

The doctor answered with a smile; "He's better than before. When he came, he was in critical condition. I would have imaged that he would be dead during the time of the attack if it wasn't for that metal contraption of his chest. He is healing, but he will have stay for a while-" Steve just stood there a smiled as the doctor started saying multiple pieces of information in which he had heard more than once in the past day; he didn't feel like being rude and interrupting so he let her go on.

Steve left the doctor and the hospital _eventually_; it did no good for him to be sitting beside a hospital bed all day while being yelled at by a rich man with an acidic tongue. He called a taxi to take him to Stark tower. It wasn't a very long ride and Steve was back at his current place of residence.

He went through the lobby and through the damaged doors. (After Jarvis was shut down during the attack the doors, wouldn't open; so _naturally_ Thor decided on going through them.) He walked the stairs and into the entertainment room. An unexpected scene revealed itself. On the sofas; four people sat. There was Thor talking; Clint watching a documentary and Natasha watching the fourth person with distain. The fourth, Loki, was facing the opposite direction from everyone else; staring out the window. A person might think the dark haired god was sulking due to the sour expression on his face. Steve if the news of Tony proving Loki's claims of innocence travelled that quickly.

"Rodgers; how is Stark?" Natasha moved her unwavering attention to Steve.

"He has woken." All the Avengers perked up that that; Steve even swore he saw relieved smile cross Loki's face for a second.

"Friend Stark has woken! We must go and see him!" Thor exclaimed loudly.

"No Thor; I think he needs his space currently. He is… rather irritable."

There was a comfortable silence as Steve took a seat until Loki decided to disrupt it. "I presume Stark confirmed my innocence?"

Steve gave a nod and Loki's face was unreadable. "I take my leave of you then." Loki walked out of the entertainment room with the grace of a prince. Steve could image that most of the Avengers in the room currently were feeling guilty for not believing Loki's claims; Steve knew he was.

Steve frowned and wrinkles formed on his forehead as he constricted on Loki; he noticed something out of the ordinary that Stark towers has been for the past little while. Weren't there two tags on the black collar around his neck? Steve could have sworn there were four now.

**Author's Note: It's ****2:30 am and I am tired. Good night. **


	15. Update Not Chapter

Starting off; this is not an update, it is an update with information on when there will be updates.

I'm sorry everyone for not doing an update in such a long time; my excuses are school, me being terribly unmotivated (My muse left) and a fried lab-top. I'm also nearing the end of the year in school-so many unit exams to study for, LOTS of assignments to hand in and finals to freak out about.

I have not given up on the story; it's just all those distractions coming at the same time overwhelmed me. I promise to get this show back on the road late June. (After exams) And since it will be summer vacation I'll attempt to get back to last year's summer schedule of one 3,000 word chapter every week. ^^

On a brighter note it is almost Mongrel's birthday; since I won't be around for might as well celebrate it now. XD Also 99 reviews… you guys are really too good for me.

So late June (Maybe earlier) is when Mongrel will come alive again so stay tuned!


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